The 2004-06 drought (2nd ed.)

This report reviews the 2004-06 drought within a hydrological and water resources framework. It was prepared as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (NHMP) – a collaborative enterprise between the Centre for Hydrology & Ecology and the British Geological Survey (both component bodies of the Natural Environment Research Council). The NHMP relies on the active cooperation of many organizations - the Environment Agency, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Rivers Agency (Northern Ireland) and the Met Office in particular. The provision of the basic data which provides the foundation both of this report and the wider activities of the NHMP is gratefully acknowledged. A primary source of information for this review is the series of monthly UK Hydrological Summaries (for further details please visit: http://www.ceh.ac.uk/data/nrfa)

Object storage: how chunky would you like your data?

In this study we examine object storage, a cutting-edge cloud-native technology specifically designed for efficiently managing large datasets. While object storage offers significant cost-effectiveness compared to disk storage, it requires data to be appropriately adapted to fully realise its benefits. Data retrieval from object storage is over HTTP in complete "objects," which are either entire files or file chunks. As this is relatively new technology, there is a clear lack of established tools and best-practice for converting various file types for optimal use with object storage, particularly for large gridded and N-dimensional datasets used in environmental and climate science. The performance and speed of object storage are contingent upon the data's structure, chunking, and the specific analysis requirements of the user. Consequently, a better understanding of these interactions is essential before widespread adoption. To address this need, our study conducted a series of experiments using gridded data with different chunking strategies, aiming to identify the most efficient approach for utilizing and accessing data stored in an object store. Our findings highlight the need for comprehensive understanding of object storage before its widespread adoption, and serve as a valuable resource for guiding future users in utilizing object storage effectively

FDRI digital workshop: enabling reproducibility in hydrological research

In this report, we summarise the key findings and outcomes from the digital workshop on ‘Enabling reproducibility in hydrological research’ held in January 2024 as part of the UK Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI)

River invertebrate classification tool database and delivery system

This project was commissioned by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) acting on behalf of a consortium of funders including SEPA, the Environment Agency (EA), and Natural Resources Wales (NRW), with additional technical support from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA). It aims to scope and to produce a database of the model input variables for the current River Invertebrate Classification Tool (RICT), and a demonstration delivery tool allowing users to get these variables for any location in the UK. The River Invertebrate Prediction and Classification System (RIVPACS) is a predictive model dating back to 1979. The main feature of RIVPACS is that it can predict the invertebrate species composition or value of invertebrate biotic indices at any site on any watercourse in UK. Wright (2000) describes history and development until RIVPACS III. RIVPACS IV has been integrated into the RICT application, which provides a web-based platform for users to run the model free of charge. From a small set of input variables, RICT predicts invertebrate communities at reference conditions. Some of the input variables of the original model are themselves influenced by environmental conditions, causing issues when assessing certain pressure influences, so a new RIVPACS model was developed using pressure-independent variables. These new variables were derived for the model calibration sites only, but are not currently available at a national scale in the RICT software. This project aimed to develop a database of the input variables required by the latest version of RICT and to propose a solution for delivery of these variables to RICT users. RIVPACS for Great Britain (GB) and for Northern Ireland (NI) are two different models but this project aimed to generate data for GB as well as for NI as far as possible. The key output of this project is the set of variables calculated along UK rivers at 50m grid interval in the following units: • Logarithm of upstream catchment area (LOGAREA, dimensionless) • Logarithm of upstream catchment mean altitude (LOGALTBAR, dimensionless) • Proportion of time upstream catchment soils are wet (PROPWET, as a number between 0 and 1) • Upstream catchment cover of key geological types (as a number between 0 and 1 indicating proportion of catchment area) • Distance from source (m) • Altitude (m A.S.L.) • Slope (m/km) • Discharge category (integer from 1 to 10 as defined in the project specification)

Data-driven approaches to linking soil moisture and soil carbon

Soil moisture has a close relationship with soil carbon. The carbon content of soil affects the response of the moisture content to meteorological input; the moisture content of soil affects the amount and type of respiration that can occur. This work seeks to elucidate this relationship by building a predictive data-driven model of soil moisture using data from the COSMOS-UK sensor network and using it as a predictor of soil organic carbon. We roll this model out across the UK and compare results to the Countryside Survey carbon map. Further, using flux tower observations of night time net ecosystem exchange (of CO2), a model linking soil moisture to respiration is created and used to propose functional forms for respiration in land surface models

Dynamic real-time hydrological status monitoring in the UK

A 'display' at the EGU General Assembly 2020. Understanding the current hydro-meteorological situation is critical to manage extreme events and water resources. The UK Water Resources Portal (UKWRP) has been developed to enable dynamic, interactive, real-time access to hydro-meteorological data, including catchment daily rainfall, real-time daily mean river flows, real-time soil moisture data from COSMOS-UK and standardised climate indices. Users can access and view data at the field, grid cell and catchment scale enabling holistic assessments of the hydro-meteorological status at a range of spatial scales. The portal offers a way of exploring the full range of river flow and rainfall variability, including comparing current conditions to those in the past, from droughts to floods. A variety of different plotting capabilities mean users can view and explore data in different ways depending on their requirements. The UKWRP can be used alone or alongside other resources such as: the UK Hydrological Outlook seasonal forecasts, the Hydrological Summary for the UK and Environment Agency Water Situation Reports, to manage water resources, to plan and prepare for extreme events, and to understand and communicate their severity. The UKWRP enables all water users, from farmers, to water companies to members of the general public to view and explore the data used by regulators to manage water supplies. Equalising access to data can be extremely powerful; for example in the case of farmers, it means they can easily view real time river flows in relation to conditions on their licence using the same data used by regulators to impose abstraction restrictions during a drought. Here we present the stakeholder engagement story of how and why the UKWRP was developed, demonstrate the capability of the UKWRP to monitor the hydrological situation in real time, and present plans for its future development, such as the addition of more indicators and indices

Dynamic high resolution hydrological status monitoring in real-time: the UK Water Resources Portal

Understanding the current hydro-meteorological situation is critical to manage extreme events and water resources. The United Kingdom Water Resources Portal (UKWRP) has been developed to enable dynamic, interactive access to hydro-meteorological data across the United Kingdom, including catchment daily rainfall (near), real-time daily mean river flows, groundwater levels, real-time soil moisture data, and standardised climate indices. The UKWRP offers a way of exploring the full range of river flow and rainfall variability, including comparing current conditions to those in the past, from droughts to floods. A variety of different plotting capabilities mean users can view and explore data in different ways depending on their requirements. Here we discuss the mechanisms and the engagement undertaken to develop the UKWRP, in addition to the technical issues and solutions of bringing multiple data sources and types together, how the data are processed, stored and published to deliver an integrated tool for water resources management. The UKWRP enables all water users–from farmers, to water companies to members of the general public–to view and explore the data used by regulators to manage water supplies. We demonstrate how the UKWRP can be used to monitor the hydrological situation, using recent examples of both floods and droughts, and enables consistent messaging and universal access to data and information. Finally, we discuss the decisions the information provided in the UKWRP can support, and possible future developments. The UKWRP is aimed at the United Kingdom water research and management community, but we envisage that the Portal (and the development pathway and technical solutions reported here) could provide a useful exemplar for similar systems in other international settings

Lake water quality in-situ data requirements and availability

Copernicus is the European Union’s Earth Observation (EO) and monitoring programme. This report summarises the requirements, availability and limitations of in-situ data for development of satellite-EO products relating to lake water quality across the Copernicus services. It identifies gaps in available data and provides recommendations for coordination activities that may help improve access and usefulness of in-situ data