Gauge Stations
- 20 Aug 2024
- 4 Minutes to read
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Gauge Stations
- Updated on 20 Aug 2024
- 4 Minutes to read
- Print
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Overview
Gauging stations provide information sourced from national authority gauges (Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and SEPA) and National River Flow Archive (NRFA) websites. You can access this real-time data directly in Flood Modeller, and export the data in various formats. Additionally, if the station includes FEH catchment descriptors, you can choose to start a Calculation point - using the catchment descriptors in ReFH2/WINFAP hydrological analysis.
Using gauge station data
Use real-time gauge station data to enhance your 1D and 2D modelling.
- Load gauge stations from the Hydrology+ tab. Click the View river stations dropdown, and select a gauge type from the list provided.
- Select a gauge station on the map and click View full info to view gauge station properties.
- Visualise the observed data, and easily navigate to view data of interest.
- When viewing 8 weeks of data or less, the Export Boundary button becomes available. Export data in .ied, .csv, or .cal format.
- View Peak Flow data; visualise annual maximum (AMAX) and peaks over threshold (POT) records for NRFA Peak Flow stations.
- If the gauge station has FEH catchment descriptors associated to it as a Peak Flow station, the option to create a calculation point will be available. This is a point for you to perform your hydrological analysis.
Further technical details of the Gauging Station functionality is provided in this Technical Reference guide.
Loading gauge stations
To load river gauge stations, in the Hydrology+ tab, click the View river stations dropdown, and select a gauge type from the list provided.
The following gauge station categories are available:
| Category | Sub-category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| National Authority Gauges (Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and SEPA) | All | Displays all river monitoring stations. |
| Level | Displays all river monitoring stations at which river level data are available. | |
| Flow | Displays all river monitoring stations at which flow data are available. | |
| UKCEH NRFA (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) | All | Displays all UKCEH NRFA river monitoring stations. |
| QMED | Displays UKCEH NRFA river monitoring stations suitable for QMED. Includes gauges suitable for both QMED and pooling. | |
| Pooling | Displays UKCEH NRFA river monitoring stations suitable for pooling. |
If viewing multiple gauge stations in an area, you may find it useful to Avoid collisions when displaying gauges. This option can be switched on in the Application Settings.
Viewing gauge stations
To view the details of a gauge station, click the station of interest on the map. A label will be displayed with the name of the monitoring station. Click View full info in the bottom left of the label to open the gauge station.
Alternatively, right-click the station and select View gauge information from the menu. The full information from the gauge will open in a new window.
Note
If selecting a gauge does not display a label, click Settings in the top left of the Hydrology+ tab and ensure the second checkbox Show summary gauge information when selecting a gauge is checked on. Click Apply and then OK to save these changes.
Observed Data
Visualise and interact with data from a river station in the Observed data tab. The buttons provided in the top toolbar allow for easy navigation of this data. Additionally, you can click on the plot at a starting point and drag the mouse over the plot, then release at an ending point. This will zoom in on the highlighted data; changing the range to be from your selected start point to your selected end point.
Full details of all options provided within Observed data tab are provided in the Gauge stations Technical Reference.
Exporting data
When viewing 8 weeks of data or less, the Export Boundary button becomes available in the top right. The data can be exported in 3 formats:
- Flow-time/Stage-time (QT/HT) boundary (.ied format) - ready to use as inflow to a 1D river or 2D simulation.
- .csv format - select between 2 columns (date/time, value) or 3 columns (date, time, value), for further analysis within Flood Modeller or other applications.
- Calibration file (.cal format) - ready to use in model calibration where data can be plotted alongside simulation results.
When exporting to an Event datafile to use in a 1D river simulation, provide the Gauge Node Name with care - river node labels are case sensitive, and the name must exactly match the boundary label within your river network. These can be amended after export. Find out more on in this article on Using event data.
Click Export to select a save location for your file. Once saved, a pop-up will confirm the export has completed successfully.
Peak Flow
For stations which are classified as Peak Flow within the NRFA, the Peak Flow is shown. Both annual maximum (AMAX) flows and peaks over threshold (POT) data are displayed along side data classifications.
Creating Calculation points
From a NRFA gauge station that has FEH catchment descriptors associated with it, a Calculation point can be created. To do this, select Create calculation point from the gauge label. This option is also available via a right-click menu from the gauge station.
Full details of using calculation points for hydrological analysis can be found in this article on Calculation points.
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