Databasing of nitrate porewater profiles and timeseries data

Abstract

This report describes the results from the first task within the BGS research project “3-D understanding and models of nitrate transport”. The objectives were to collate and database the considerable body of data on nitrate concentrations in groundwater held by BGS, collected over a long period from a diverse range of science budget and commercial projects. This data needs to be drawn together to allow it to advance our understanding of the movement of nitrate and other solutes in groundwater. The construction and access of two databases is described. These are: • porewater profiles of nitrate and other solute concentrations in the unsaturated zone containing all important data collected at BGS Wallingford since 1977 and also the WRc porewater profile archive; • time-series records for nitrate in mainly public abstraction boreholes collected by BGS for science budget and commercial projects