Water data sources in the United Kingdom

British Geological Survey Africa Groundwater Atlas project providing country-by-country hydrogeology and groundwater resource information plus continental quantitative maps of...

Free | Continental (Africa)

Aquifer designation dataset classifying bedrock and superficial geology of England and Wales into Principal, Secondary (A/B/undifferentiated) and Unproductive aquifers, jointly...

Limited | National (England & Wales)

BGS national-scale gridded raster (50 m) of probable maximum depth to the phreatic water table across Great Britain, supporting flood, site investigation and water resource...

Paid | National (Great Britain)

Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs published river water quality monitoring data (nutrients) for all of Northern Ireland from 1990 to 2025.

Free | Northern Ireland, UK

UK national open data portal record for the Environment Agency's hydrological open data: rainfall, river flow, river level and groundwater readings from ~7,000 monitoring stations...

Free | England

DataMapWales documentation/portal for the Natural Resources Wales open River Levels API, providing river, rainfall and sea level measurements (typically every 15 minutes) at...

Free | Wales

GeoNode layer on DataMapWales for Natural Resources Wales water quality archive monitoring stations, providing locations and metadata for surface water quality sampling sites...

Free | Wales

Scotland's drinking water quality regulator publishing annual reports and compliance data on public and private water supplies, including test results and standards compliance.

Free | Scotland

Real-time water level and quality data

Free | England monitoring network

UK historic gridded potential evapotranspiration (1891-2015) derived from a temperature-based equation, a 5 km monthly dataset for water-balance and hydrology applications...

Free | 1891-2015, 5 km monthly

Greater London Authority open dataset of daily London reservoir levels since 1989 (percent of usable capacity, Lower Lee and Lower Thames groups), on a CKAN platform with...

Free | London

GeoNetwork metadata record for the Natural Resources Wales open River Levels API, documenting the dataset of automatic river-level measurements (~15-minute) across Welsh...

Free | Wales

Wales water resources data

Free | Wales

Real-time river, reservoir and coastal water-level monitoring data from NRW sites across Wales, exposed through a public River Levels API.

Free | Wales

NatureScot data services including the Standing Waters Database with aquatic plant and water chemistry data for 3,000+ Scottish lochs (surface area, altitude, water chemistry)...

Free | Regional (Scotland)

UK NERC Environmental Data Service GeoNetwork catalogue exposing satellite water/cryosphere datasets such as ESA GlobSnow snow water equivalent and CCI lake products with...

Free | Global

CKAN open data portal exposing datasets through a documented CKAN Action API including datastore_search for structured queries; a working keyless CKAN endpoint example for portal...

Free | United Kingdom

England and Wales economic regulator's datasets of water company performance commitments (leakage, supply interruptions, pollution incidents, internal sewer flooding) for the 16...

Free | England and Wales

UK water regulator's machine-readable performance datasets for water and sewerage companies in England and Wales, covering performance commitments, leakage, pollution and customer...

Free | England & Wales

Scotland water and environment data

Free | Scotland

Scottish Environment Protection Agency programmatic time-series API serving rainfall, groundwater level, river level (stage), river flow (discharge), tidal level and derived...

Free | ~392 hydrometric sites, Scotland

Historic and real-time hydrology data

Free | 8000+ monitoring stations

England water resources and environmental data

Free | England water and environment

Real-time flood monitoring system

Free | UK flood monitoring stations

First UK-wide monitoring network for extreme weather impacts on water resources with real-time sensors. Backed by £40 million from NERC.

Free | National

UKHSA Environmental Monitoring for Health Protection (EMHP) programme publishing SARS-CoV-2 and polio wastewater surveillance data across England and Northern Ireland wastewater...

Free | England + Northern Ireland

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology maintains the National River Flow Archive with daily mean flow data for over 1,500 UK gauging stations, many with records exceeding 50 years.

Free | National

Microplastics data from UK seafloor sediments in England and Wales waters, published as open government data by the UK Environment Agency.

Free | England and Wales seafloor sediments

UK water bodies data

Free | All UK water bodies

Self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI) datasets from the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia.

Free | Global

Climatic Research Unit CRU TS v4.08 high-resolution (0.5 degree) monthly gridded climate dataset (1901-2023) including precipitation and potential evapotranspiration, archived at...

Free | 1901-2023, 0.5 degree monthly

Global land 0.1 degree hourly potential evapotranspiration dataset (FAO Penman-Monteith from ERA5-Land), 1981-present, updated annually.

Free | Global land

TAMSAT satellite-derived daily rainfall estimates for all of Africa at 0.0375 degree (1983-2016, extended on TAMSAT site), open-access NetCDF download from the University of...

Free | 1983-present, 0.0375 degree daily

Operational TAMSAT data access hub for daily, pentadal and monthly African rainfall estimates and soil moisture, with subsetting, file downloads and near-real-time updates.

Free | 1983-present

British Geological Survey digital water-well archive holding water level, geology, well construction, yield and water quality data for around 60,000 water boreholes across the UK.

Limited | National

British Oceanographic Data Centre / National Oceanography Centre ERDDAP serving UK marine in-situ and sensor datasets including water temperature, salinity and biogeochemical...

Free | UK / NE Atlantic

Hydro-meteorological time series (rainfall, PET, temperature, radiation, humidity, flow) and a comprehensive set of catchment attributes (topography, climate, hydrology, land...

Free | 671 catchments (Great Britain)

CAMELS-GB version 2: extended daily hydrometeorological time series (1970-2022), new hourly precipitation/river-flow/level series, groundwater level time series and attributes for...

Free | 671 catchments (Great Britain)

Global data bank of monthly and annual mean sea-level values from ~2,000 tide-gauge stations worldwide (RLR and Metric), freely downloadable, hosted at the UK National...

Free | Global

High-resolution (~30-90 m) global fluvial, pluvial and coastal flood hazard maps with flood depths for return periods from 1-in-5 to 1-in-1000 years, including climate-change...

Paid | Global terrestrial

JBA Risk Management global flood hazard maps providing flood extents and depths for multiple return periods across fluvial, pluvial and coastal sources, covering 99.98% of global...

Paid | Global landmass

OasisHUB catalogue hosting Fathom global flood hazard 'free of charge non-commercial' packages for World Bank priority countries, with fluvial and pluvial undefended flood maps at...

Limited | Selected countries

Thames Water monthly reservoir levels, groundwater and river-flow figures for the Thames region water-supply reservoirs.

Free | Thames region

ESA CCI satellite-derived lake essential climate variable dataset covering 2000+ lakes (1992-2022): lake water level (altimetry), water extent, surface water temperature, ice...

Free | Global

ESA Lakes_cci Essential Climate Variable products for 2000+ inland water bodies (1992-2023): lake water level, water extent, surface water temperature, ice cover and reflectance...

Free | Global

ESA Soil_Moisture_cci multi-decadal global surface soil moisture record (ACTIVE, PASSIVE and COMBINED) fusing scatterometer and radiometer satellite products, 1978-2023 at 0.25°...

Free | Global

Project portal of the ESA Lakes Climate Change Initiative providing documentation and download links for satellite lake products (lake surface water temperature, ice cover, water...

Free | Global

Open-access 1 km gridded monthly actual groundwater (and surface/tidal water) abstraction dataset for England, 1999-2014, provided as NetCDF and BADC-CSV via the CEDA Archive with...

Free | National (England)

Satellite-derived daily Lake Surface Water Temperature dataset for ~1,000 lakes globally (1995-2016) with uncertainty and quality levels, produced by University of Reading, hosted...

Free | Global

Hydrological research data

Free | UK-wide monitoring

Water UK dashboard bringing together performance data for water companies in England and Wales from regulators (Drinking Water Inspectorate, Environment Agency, Natural Resources...

Free | England & Wales

Global citizen-science study (since 2013) collecting Secchi-disk ocean transparency measurements via a free smartphone app, re-establishing a long-running database of...

Free | Global

Open data portal publishing standardized datasets from England and Wales water and sewerage companies, including the National Storm Overflow Hub with near-real-time discharge data...

Free | England and Wales

UNEP-WCMC distribution of Global Mangrove Watch mangrove extent and change maps (1996-2020, v3), downloadable as vector shapefiles for global tidal wetland (mangrove) monitoring.

Free | Global