Davies, H.N.; Rameshwaran, P.; Bell, V.A.

Gridded (1km) physical river characteristics for the UK v2

https://doi.org/10.5285/8df65124-68e9-4c68-8659-1c6b82c735e9 Cite this dataset

This is the most recent version of this dataset

The dataset includes six files of UK physical river characteristics including five files of gridded data at 1 km x 1 km resolution and one comma separated table. The data includes:

• Drainage directions (D8 flow method), ESRI coding

• Drainage directions (D8 flow method), unifhy (python hydrology framework) coding

• Catchment areas (km2)

• Widths of bankfull rivers (m)

• Depths of bankfull rivers (m)

• NRFA gauging station locations (easting (m), northing (m))

Two versions of drainage directions are provided, both have the same drainage directions but different numbering systems. The comma separated NRFA (National River Flow Archive) gauging station locations table provides the best locations of 1499 river flow gauging stations on the 1km grids, together with the approximate error in the 1km × 1km gridded delineation of the upstream catchment area. All datasets are provided on the British National Grid.

Publication date: 2022-11-08

Format

NetCDF

Spatial information

Study area
Spatial representation type: Raster
Spatial reference system: OSGB 1936 / British National Grid

Provenance & quality

The 1 km x 1 km outflow drainage direction and catchment areas datasets are generated from a 50 m x 50 m resolution digital terrain: IHDTM (Integrated Hydrological Digital Terrain Model). Bankfull river widths on a 1 km x 1 km grid are generated using the OS MasterMap Water Network Layer width data in a regression relationship with catchment area and rainfall characteristics. The 1km × 1km gridded bankfull river depth dataset is generated using observed measurements from a range of sources in a regression relationship with catchment area and rainfall characteristics.

Finally, the NRFA (National River Flow Archive) gauging station location dataset on a 1 km x 1 km grid is generated by identifying the location (easting, northing) on the catchment areas dataset that best represents the true gauging station location. An indication of the quality of these data is provided by the percentage error between the 1km-derived and the IHDTM catchment areas. See supporting information for more details.