Durant, M.J.; Counsell, C.J.

Inventory of reservoirs amounting to 90% of total UK storage

https://doi.org/10.5285/f5a7d56c-cea0-4f00-b159-c3788a3b2b38 Cite this dataset
This dataset is an inventory of reservoir details for the UK. It provides information, including reservoir location, type (impounding or non-impounding), use (water resources, hydro-electric, ecological, flood storage, canal), capacity, planning date, construction date, catchment National River Flow Archive (NRFA) gauge references and membership of a reservoir group, based on current usage within the CEH Monthly Hydrological Summary (https://nrfa.ceh.ac.uk/monthly-hydrological-summary-uk). The dataset comprises 273 individual reservoirs, which amount to approximately 90% of total UK reservoir storage. Data quality has been recorded, using a data flag system and a notes section, with references relevant to each reservoir provided.

Publication date: 2018-07-20

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Supporting documentation

This dataset is made available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

Format of the data: Comma-separated values (CSV)

You must cite: Durant, M.J.; Counsell, C.J. (2018). Inventory of reservoirs amounting to 90% of total UK storage. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/f5a7d56c-cea0-4f00-b159-c3788a3b2b38

 

Where/When

Study area
Temporal extent
1789-01-01    to    2001-12-31

Provenance & quality

Information on reservoirs and their capacity was collected from the Environment Agency under Open Government Licence through a Freedom of Information request, and the UK Lakes Portal (CEH). Information was then gathered from internet searches. The quality of source data has been identified wherever possible through the use of a data flag system, and use of the notes section. References are supplied for all information within the inventory.
The composition of reservoir groups were confirmed through correspondence with Water Companies responsible for submitting storage volumes for the Hydrological Summaries, produced by CEH. The inventory includes reservoirs up to 1,600 megalitre (Ml) capacity, as well as reservoirs below this capacity that are included within reservoir groups for which there is historic storage information and sufficient information on planning and construction dates. The threshold of 1,600 Ml was decided, based on less available information for smaller reservoirs, and that 1,600 Ml equates to approximately 90% capacity of all reservoirs in the Reservoirs Act 1975.

Supplemental information

This dataset is referenced in:

Coxon, G., Addor, N., Bloomfield, J.P., Freer, J., Fry, M., Hannaford, J., Howden, N.J.K., Lane, R., Lewis, M., Robinson, E.L., Wagener, T., & Woods, R. (2020). CAMELS-GB: hydrometeorological time series and landscape attributes for 671 catchments in Great Britain. Earth System Science Data, 12(4), 2459–2483.
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2459-2020

Related websites:

https://nrfa.ceh.ac.uk/monthly-hydrological-summary-uk

Correspondence/contact details

Mason Durant
HR Wallingford Ltd
Kestrel House, Crowmarsh Gifford
Wallingford
Oxfordshire
OX10 8BA
United Kingdom
 m.durant@hrwallingford.com

Authors

Durant, M.J.
HR Wallingford Ltd
Counsell, C.J.
HR Wallingford Ltd

Other contacts

Custodian
Environmental Information Data Centre
 info@eidc.ac.uk
Publisher
NERC Environmental Information Data Centre
 info@eidc.ac.uk

Additional metadata

Topic categories
Inland Waters
Keywords
Drought Catalogue,  Drought Inventory,  Droughts,  Historic Droughts,  Hydrology,  Reservoir
INSPIRE Theme
Hydrography
Funding
Natural Environment Research Council Award: NE/L010127/1
Spatial representation type
Tabular (text)
Spatial reference system
OSGB 1936 / British National Grid
Last updated
01 March 2021 16:10