Ensuring UK hydrometric data are fit-for-purpose through a national Service Level Agreement

Access to hydrometric data of adequate quality, consistency and coverage to answer pressing research questions and manage operational freshwater systems use remains a major issue. In many parts of the world, despite recent technological advances and ongoing developments in data management and data sharing, many datasets remain inaccessible or have limited utility due to data accuracy and completeness issues. The UK introduced a Service Level Agreement in 2002 to control provision of data from the main hydrometric measuring authorities (SEPA, EA, NRW and Rivers Agency) to the National River Flow Archive. The Agreement sets out a framework for data provision which has the dual aims of improving the utility of data at individual monitoring points and also ensuring continuity of a core network of gauging stations across the country. Central to this framework is a set of quantifiable indicators of data quality, completeness and provision. The results from the first 10 years of the SLA indicators are encouraging, with improvements in both data quality and consistency. This presentation will outline the findings and discuss the benefits of such a system to the overall utility of UK national hydrometric data. The system, which could be applied to other data initiatives, constitutes one method of helping to ensure hydrological databases provide information of adequate quality to meet water management needs both today and into the future.