Inventory of reservoirs amounting to 90% of total UK storage
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
Where/When
- Study area
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- Temporal extent
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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.
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.
Related
This dataset is included in the following collections
Citations
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
Supplemental information
Correspondence/contact details
Mason Durant
HR Wallingford Ltd
Kestrel House, Crowmarsh Gifford
Wallingford
Oxfordshire
OX10 8BA
UNITED KINGDOM
m.durant@hrwallingford.com
Wallingford
Oxfordshire
OX10 8BA
UNITED KINGDOM
Other contacts
- Custodian
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NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centreinfo@eidc.ac.uk
- Publisher
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NERC Environmental Information Data Centreinfo@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
- 20 May 2022 10:42