Hydrological Data UK
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iii Hydrological data UK 1992 YEARBOOK INSTITUTE OF HYDROLOGY • BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY á HYDROLOGICAL DATA UNITED KINGDOM 1992 YEARBOOK 0 1993 Natural Environment Research Council Published by the Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxon OX 10 8BB ISBN 0 948 540 57 5 Editor Hydrological data UK series : T J Marsh The acquisition, archiving and validation of the bulk of the hydrological data featured in this Yearbook is undertaken as part of the National Water Archive (NWA) project at the Institute of Hydrology. Under the leadership of M L Lccs (NWA Manager) a team of regional representatives is responsible for liaison with the measuring authorities (see page 172). In addition to the Project Leader and Yearbook Editor, this team currently includes:- N W Arnell, A R Black, J D Dixon, S Green, I G Littlewood, S C Loader, D G Morris and F J Sanderson. The style and contents of the Yearbook, and the scope of the data retrieval service which complements it, reflect a decade of archive system development supervised by D G Morris. Recent enhancements to the retrieval and data presentation facilities have largely been undertaken by 0 Swain and R W Flavin. The British Geological Survey is responsible for the acquisition and archiving of the featured groundwater level data. Until his retirement in September 1992,itA Monkhouse was the Groundwater Level Archive , manager and provided hydrogeological appraisal and advice relating to the groundwater material which . appears in the Yearbook. lie is succeeded by Mr A A McKenzie. Measuring authority liaison and data acquisition duties are undertaken by P Doorgakant. S Black was responsible for the preparation of the text and supervises the sale and distribution of the Hydrological data UK publications through the National Water Archive Office at the Institute of Hydrology. , Design: P A Benoist Graphics J J Carr Typeset and printed in the United Kingdom by Burgess. The materials used in the production of this volume are madc from the pulp of softwood trees in managed Scandinavian forests, in which every tree cut down is replaced by at least one more, thus replenishing the Earth's resources. Cover: The River Prosen Watcr at Prosen Bridge (Tayside). Photograph: David Morris HYDROLOGICAL DATA UNITED KINGDOM 1992 YEARBOOK An account of rainfall, river flows, groundwater levels and river water quality January to December 1992 Institute of Hydrology British Geological Survey á HYDROLOGICAL DATA 1992 FOREWORD 1992 began with an intensification of the very protracted drought which, at one time or another in the preceding four years, had afflicted much of Europe. In the English lowlands the drought could be traced back to the spring of 1988 and, despite several notably wet interludes, had achieved an extreme severity by the early spring of 1992. Thereafter, the drought declined in intensity, albeit unevenly, and a very wet autumn produced widespread floodplain inundations in southern Britain. In Scotland, spate conditions have been common in the last five years especially in rivers draining from the Highlands; this is one manifestation of a remarkable accentuation in the north- west to south-east rainfall gradient across the United Kingdom. The recent past has provided a clear demonstration of the United Kingdom's vulnerability to droughts and floods. Man's ability to exacerbate - as well as ameliorate - their effects on both the community and the environment underpins the need for improved water management strategies and engineering design procedures. This requirement is given greater emphasis by the possibility that the clustering of notable climatological events in the last few years may signal a continuing period of climatic instability. The marshalling and analysis of current and historical hydrological data is an essential prerequisite for the development of more appropriate water management options. A principal function of the Hydrological data UK series is to collate and disseminate information relating to contemporary hydrological conditions and to provide both a perspective within which to examine the recent exceptional events and a benchmark against which any future changes may be assessed. The Hydrological data UK series of Yearbooks and reports was launched in 1985 as a joint venture by the Institute of Hydrology (IH) and the British Geological Survey (BGS); both organisations are component bodies of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Such a collaborative enterprise arose naturally from the close liaison maintained between those responsible for the management of the National River Flow Archive at IH, and their counterparts at BGS concerned with the National Groundwater Level Archive. The Archive staff are to be commended for keeping up the pace of publication, and maintaining the computer retrieval services, in a year which has seen the entire data holdings moved from an outdated mainframe computer to a modern client/server network. The work of the National River Flow and Groundwater Level Archives is overseen by a steering committee which includes representatives of Government departments, the National Rivers Authority and the water industry from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Professor W.B. Wilkinson Director, Institute of Hydrology 97 96 95 3 National Rivers Authority region or River Purification Board boundary Hydrometric area number and boundary 22 23 24 25 72 ' 70 30 31 34 32 HYDROLOGICAL DATA: 1992 CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 SCOPE AND SOURCES OF INFORMATION 2 Rainfall and climatological data 2 HYDROLOGICAL REVIEW 3 Summary 3 Rainfall 3 Evaporation and soil moisture deficits 10 Runoff 13 Groundwater 20 1992 Hydrological diary 24 RIVER FLOW DATA 27 Computation and accuracy of gauged flows 27 Scope of the flow data tabulations 27 Gauging station location map 32 Daily flow tables 34 Monthly flow tables 91 THE NATIONAL RIVER FLOW ARCHIVE DATA RETRIEVAL SERVICE 135 List of surface water retrieval options 137 Concise register of gauging stations 139 GROUNDWATER LEVEL DATA 147 Background 147 The observation borehole network 147 Measurement and recording of groundwater levels 147 Index borehole location map 149 Register of selected groundwater observation wells 150 Hydrographs of groundwater level fluctuations 152 The Register 156 THE NATIONAL GROUNDWATER LEVEL ARCHIVE DATA RETRIEVAL SERVICE 159 List of groundwater retrieval options 160 SURFACE WATER QUALITY DATA 161 Background 161 Data retrieval 161 Water quality monitoring station location map 161 Scope of the water quality data tabulations 162 Water quality data tables 164 DIRECTORY OF MEASURING AUTHORITIES 172 PUBLICATIONS in the Hydrological data UK series 174 ABBREVIATIONS 176 á INTRODUCTION The 1992 Yearbook is the fourth edition since Wales then passed to the newly created Water Data responsibility for the publication of data, upon which Unit of the Department of the Environment (DoE). assessments of water resources in England and WalesYearbooks were published jointly each year by these may be made, was transferred (under the Water Act organisations and the Scottish Office for the water- 1989) from the Department of the Environment to years 1953-54 to 1965-66; thereafter information the National Rivers Authority. for the five calendar years 1966 to 1970 was It is the twelfth Yearbook in the Hydrological published in one volume in 1974. Following editions data UK series and the second volume in the third were renamed 'Surface Water: United Kingdom' to five-year publication cycle (1991-95). mark the inclusion of the first records from Northern The 1992 Yearbook represents the thirty-third Ireland and in recognition of the move away from edition in the series of surface water publications single year volumes. Two volumes of Surface Water: which began with the 1935-36 Surface Water United Kingdom, covering the years 1971-73 and Yearbook. As a result of •the incorporation of 1974-76 were published jointly by the Water Data groundwater data in the Yearbook, this volume is Unit, the Scottish Development Department (now - also the seventeenth edition in the series of The Scottish Office Environment Department) and groundwater data publications which began with the the Department of the Environment for Northern 1964-66 Groundwater Yearbook. Ireland. Apart from summary information, surface water Following the transfer of the Surface Water and groundwater data on a national basis were Archive to the Natural Environment Research published separately prior to the introduction of the Council in 1982, the final edition of Surface Water: Hydrological data UK series. In common with the United Kingdom, for the years 1977-80, was pre- earlier editions, the 1992 Yearbook brings together pared by the Institute of Hydrology at the request of the principal data sets relating to river flow, the Water Directorate of the Department of the groundwater levels and areal rainfall throughout the Environment, and published in 1983. United Kingdom. Also included arc water quality The 1981 and 1982 Yearbooks were prepared data -for a selection of monitoring sites throughout concurrently and were, in 1985, the first Yearbooks the UK. A comprehensive hydrological review of the published by the Natural Environment Research year includes an examination of the spatial and Council. Further Yearbooks,- the editions for 1983 temporal variations in the intensity of the 1988-92 to 1991 - were published over the following seven drought. years. An outline description is given of the national A compilation of 'Groundwater levels in England