Gridded actual abstraction, discharge and hands-off flow datasets for England

Across England, water abstractions from ground, surface and tidal sources are regulated through a system of licences to protect both the sources and the environment. Similarly, permits are required for discharging wastewater to the water source or landscape. Anthropogenic abstractions and discharges can have a significant impact on flows and freshwater ecosystems, and until now spatiotemporal data on these influences have been unavailable for research without a licence. Recorded or Actual abstraction and discharge values (as opposed to licenced values) are extremely valuable and provide a means of understanding how anthropogenic influences on water resources vary in time and space in response to changes in local conditions (Rameshwaran et al., 2022, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR029787). Environment Agency (EA) information held in the National Abstraction Licensing Database (NALD) has been used to derive 1 km × 1 km gridded monthly recorded abstractions from 1999 to 2014 for England. Similarly, discharge data and Hands-off Flow (HoF) conditions for England were obtained from the Water Resources Geographic Information System (WRGIS) 2017 and 2022 versions respectively and converted to a 1km grid: (i) Monthly abstractions (m3 month-1) from 1999 to 2014 for each source, (ii) Daily rate of Consented Dry Weather flow and Recent Actual discharges (m3 day-1) for 2017 and (iii) Hands-off Flow (HoF) conditions (m3 day-1) for 2022. These data are now being made available to support future climate, environmental and regulatory assessments across England.