Excel Tutorial

January 12, 2015

Forest Hydrology (FNR4343)
This lab exercise is designed to familiarize you with some of operations that Excel
can perform that you will need to be able to use during the semester. Well be
working with a stream flow and rainfall data set that dates back to the 1930s.
Tasks
1. Open Excel and SilverRiver.xls
(http://sfrc.ufl.edu/ecohydrology/silver_river.xlsx)
This is an uninterrupted data set of flow in the Silver River (near Ocala
Florida) since 1932.
Discharge is estimated using a rating curve that relates water level in the
river (something easy to measure) to discharge (which is harder to
measure).
The data set also includes rainfall from Ocala over the same period of
record.
2. Worksheets
Start by naming the data sheet as raw data and get in the habit of
naming all the worksheets in your workbook so that you can easily find
things.
3. Formulas for data processing
Whenever you set up a new column of information give it a meaningful
name.
Convert flows (in cfs) to flows (in cubic meters per second). To do this, set
up the following equation: Flow (cms) = Flow (cfs) * (0.3*0.3*0.3) and then
fill down. Note Excels way of referencing cells (C2 or E27).
Do the same sort of thing to change the rainfall from inches to
centimeters (1 = 2.54 cm).
Now convert flow in cubic meters per second to cubic meters per day (how
many seconds per day?).
Look at the list of native functions that Excel has (there are TONS).
Keep a running tally of the rainfall that occurred over the last 500 days.
Start in cell 501, and sum the rainfall for all the days prior to that day in
that cell. Fill down. Note that you can lock or unlock cells with the $
sign on the row, the column, or both.
Enter your birthdays, and then use the vlookup equation to determine the
flow on that date. This works by extracting a value in some data array
that is indexed by some other value (e.g., date). The syntax can be a little
tricky, but its a really powerful tool to keep in mind that can save HOURS
of data parsing.

4. Data Analysis Toolpak

To do any proper analysis with the data youll need to install the excel
toolpaks. File Options Add-Ins Manage Excel Add-Ins Click on
Analysis ToolPak
Descriptive statistics: Estimate the mean, median, variance, standard
error, standard deviation and range of the data set. What does
negative skewness mean?
Comparison of means: Lets compare Silver River Flows between
1932-1986 with flows between 1986-2012 (when the data set was
downloaded). This requires a two-sample t-test with unequal
variances, and a hypothesized difference of 0.
Histogram: On the first worksheet, select an empty column and label it
Bins and add values of 250 to 1300 in 25 unit steps. Choose the
histogram function in the data analysis toolpak and construct an
estimate the distribution of flow volumes over time.
Regression: Regress rainfall vs. flow. Also regress rainfall over the last
500 days vs. flow. What do the results mean?
5. Pivot tables
These are the real work-horses of excel. They allow you to visualize
your data in various ways that arent that straightforward otherwise.
Start by highlighting all of the data that you want to pivot (usually
everything) and insert a pivot table (under the insert tab).
Summarize flows by month and by year.
Summarize rainfall similarly.
6. Basic

Charts (scatterplots, histograms)

flow vs. rainfall
flow vs. antecedent rainfall
histogram of flows
monthly rainfall and monthly flow
annual antecedent rainfall vs. annual flow

7. Analysis of whether the observed flow difference is climatic or something else

Divide flow by the rainfall that occurred over the last 500 days.
Plot that quantity vs. time
Evaluate (using a t-test) whether the quantity changed between the
early and late part of the record.