Birkinshaw, S.
Hydrological monitoring data from Coalburn catchment, Northern England, 1967-2022
Cite this dataset as:
Birkinshaw, S. (2025). Hydrological monitoring data from Coalburn catchment, Northern England, 1967-2022. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/88d72918-324e-42a8-a4f2-bbbc322814ff
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This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence
https://doi.org/10.5285/88d72918-324e-42a8-a4f2-bbbc322814ff
Hydrological monitoring data for 55 years from 1967 to 2022 for the Coalburn catchment (1.5 km2). The catchment is located in Northern England within Kielder forest, Northumberland, and is the longest running forest research catchment in the UK. In 1972/73 the upland grassland was ploughed and planted with a conifer forest. The trees are now mature and around 30% of the catchment has been felled. From 1967 to 1993 a mixture of hourly and daily data is available and from 1993 onwards all the data is hourly. The data consist of precipitation, discharge, potential evapotranspiration, other meteorological data and snow depths. The data has been extensively quality controlled and can be used for hydrological modelling or data analysis to understand the effects of forests on river flows.
Publication date: 2025-02-11
View numbers valid from 11 February 2025 Download numbers valid from 11 February 2025 (information prior to this was not collected)
Formats
Comma-separated values (CSV), GeoTiff, png, jpg, GeoPackage
Spatial information
Study area
Spatial representation types
Tabular (text)
Raster
Raster
Spatial reference system
OSGB 1936 / British National Grid
Temporal information
Temporal extent
1967-01-01 to 2022-12-31
Temporal resolution
Provenance & quality
The Coalburn catchment was first instrumented in 1967 by the Institute of Hydrology (https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/7372/1/IH_133.pdf). The Environment Agency, Forest Research and various NERC and EPSRC grant have enabled continuous measurements to be carried out to the present day. Analysis of the data to 2014 has been carried out (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.07.050).
Originally 13 precipitation storage gauges were installed around the Coalburn catchment; these were reduced to 4 in 1972 and these 4 gauges were used to calculate the Theissen weighted catchment monthly precipitation from 1967 to 2003. In 1992 a Tipping Bucket Raingauge (TBR) was installed by the Environment Agency of at precipitation storage gauge site 12 near the outlet of the catchment. Corrections were made to the entire TBR time series so the aerially averaged monthly precipitation and the TBR over the coincident period (1992–2003) were comparable.
A compound crump weir was installed at the outlet of the Coalburn catchment in 1966. This was replaced in 1991 due to leakage problems which resulted in some poor/missing data prior to 1991. A new central thin plate V notch within a non-standard broad crested weir was installed in August 1991. The original weir used a theoretical rating curve and there was good agreement between this and the gauged discharges. The new weir also uses a theoretical rating curve and excellent agreement has been found between these and the gauged flows.
An automatic weather station (AWS) was installed at Coalburn in 1971 but owing to the remoteness of the site and problems with the equipment there are a considerable number of gaps in its data. The Eskdalemuir weather station is located 45 km north-west of Coalburn at a similar elevation. Data from this location were used for comparison with the AWS at Coalburn and to infill the missing data. Hourly potential evaporation (PET) has been calculated using the Penman–Monteith reference crop evaporation, ET0 , using this meteorological data. Snow depths used measured values from Eskdalemuir. All the data has been quality controlled with missing data infilled from nearby weather stations if possible.
Originally 13 precipitation storage gauges were installed around the Coalburn catchment; these were reduced to 4 in 1972 and these 4 gauges were used to calculate the Theissen weighted catchment monthly precipitation from 1967 to 2003. In 1992 a Tipping Bucket Raingauge (TBR) was installed by the Environment Agency of at precipitation storage gauge site 12 near the outlet of the catchment. Corrections were made to the entire TBR time series so the aerially averaged monthly precipitation and the TBR over the coincident period (1992–2003) were comparable.
A compound crump weir was installed at the outlet of the Coalburn catchment in 1966. This was replaced in 1991 due to leakage problems which resulted in some poor/missing data prior to 1991. A new central thin plate V notch within a non-standard broad crested weir was installed in August 1991. The original weir used a theoretical rating curve and there was good agreement between this and the gauged discharges. The new weir also uses a theoretical rating curve and excellent agreement has been found between these and the gauged flows.
An automatic weather station (AWS) was installed at Coalburn in 1971 but owing to the remoteness of the site and problems with the equipment there are a considerable number of gaps in its data. The Eskdalemuir weather station is located 45 km north-west of Coalburn at a similar elevation. Data from this location were used for comparison with the AWS at Coalburn and to infill the missing data. Hourly potential evaporation (PET) has been calculated using the Penman–Monteith reference crop evaporation, ET0 , using this meteorological data. Snow depths used measured values from Eskdalemuir. All the data has been quality controlled with missing data infilled from nearby weather stations if possible.
Licensing and constraints
This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence
Cite this dataset as:
Birkinshaw, S. (2025). Hydrological monitoring data from Coalburn catchment, Northern England, 1967-2022. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/88d72918-324e-42a8-a4f2-bbbc322814ff
Correspondence/contact details
Author
Other contacts
Rights holder
Newcastle University
Custodian
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
info@eidc.ac.uk
Publisher
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
info@eidc.ac.uk
Additional metadata
Keywords
Funding
Natural Environment Research Council Award: NE/K008781/2
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Forest Research
Environment Agency
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Forest Research
Environment Agency
Last updated
13 February 2025 15:58