Hydrological Data Rescue – the current state of affairs

Hydrological data are costly to record and collect, in terms of both effort and resources. Historical hydrological data records are important, nationally and internationally, for activities from water resources management to flood estimation and climate change modelling. Loss of data can have a significant impact on the ability to undertake these activities. Data rescue is the process of securing data at risk of loss through natural hazards, degradation or redundancy of storage medium, and providing access to data through digitisation and computerisation. A World Meteorological Organisation survey of National Hydrological Services worldwide requested information on current hydrological data rescue requirements. Results indicate huge volumes of data at risk. Many countries requiring data rescue are poorly represented within international flow archives. Data rescue efforts targeted towards these countries and towards capturing gauging station information would improve the data within these archives for a wide range of applications.