dataset · United Kingdom

National River Flow Archive (NRFA)

The National River Flow Archive (NRFA) is the UK's focal point for river flow data and is the primary archive of daily and peak river flows for the United Kingdom. The archive incorporates daily, monthly and flood peak data from over 1500 gauging stations across the UK. The NRFA holds a wide range of hydrological information to assist in the understanding and interpretation of measured river flows. In addition to time series of gauged river flow, the data centre maintains hydrometric information

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Source details

Licence: ["This data is jointly owned by NRW, the Environment Agency (England), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Rivers Agency (Northern Ireland). There are third party use restriction

Evidence quality: 50.3

Listed in data.gov.uk public catalogue API on 2026-10-16; relevance/value screened (haiku).

Metadata checked: 2026-10-14T13:20:00.000Z

What's in it

Data offered docs-verified: daily river flow · monthly river flow · flood peak river flow · gauging station hydrometric information · catchment hydrometric information
Coverage docs-verified: UK per summary; metadata bounding box covers 51.24°N–53.51°N and 5.78°W–2.61°W only
Resolution llm-inferred: Daily and monthly flow time series and flood peak records, per gauging station
Update frequency docs-verified: annually
Access docs-verified: Public download via data.gov.uk; jointly owned by NRW, Environment Agency (England), SEPA and Rivers Agency (NI); third-party use restrictions apply; no licence set on the data.gov.uk record

Useful for

Use cases llm-inferred: FRA baseline flows from nearest gauge using daily and monthly series · Design flood estimation from flood peak records · Catchment hydrometric context for water resources or drainage strategy
Audience llm-inferred: flood consultants · hydrologists · drainage engineers · water resources engineers

Limitations

Constraints docs-verified: Metadata extent (51.24°N–53.51°N, 5.78°W–2.61°W) does not cover the whole UK despite the 'across the UK' summary; verify station coverage before use

Evidence

Check upstream coverage, uncertainty and licence before use. Station observations are not forecasts or design levels.