dataset · Wales
NRW Open Water Quality Archive
NRW’s water quality archive provides data from samples collected around Wales, including coastal, estuary, rivers, lakes, ponds, canals, sewage discharges, trade discharges, pollution investigation points and waste sites. NRW holds data goes back to 1962 whereas the open data product contains data from 2000 onwards. The open data product is extracted from NRW’s Water Quality database (KiWQM) and updated every month. Some field measurements are taken in situ at the sampling station, whereas some
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Licence: ["There are no access restrictions on this data. NRW may release, publish or disseminate it freely.", "\u00a9 CNC/NRW Data may be re-used under the terms of the Open Government Licence providing it is
Evidence quality: 54.3
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
- water quality sample results (in situ field measurements and laboratory analyses) · sampling points including rivers, lakes, ponds, canals, estuaries, coastal waters, sewage and trade discharges, pollution investigation points and waste sites
- Coverage docs-verified
- Wales · 2000 onwards (open data product); NRW holds records back to 1962
- Update frequency docs-verified
- monthly
- Access docs-verified
- Free/open, no access restrictions; Open Government Licence v3.0 (© CNC/NRW)
Useful for
- Use cases llm-inferred
- Baseline water quality context for flood risk assessments on Welsh watercourses · Receiving-water quality baseline for drainage or discharge consent applications in Wales · Historical water quality trend analysis for EIA and ecological reporting
- Audience llm-inferred
- environmental consultants · hydrologists · ecologists · drainage engineers · water quality scientists
Limitations
- Constraints docs-verified
- Delay between sample collection and publication, because samples must be processed and verified first · Data may change after publication; corrections are applied in the monthly update · Open product only covers 2000 onwards; full archive from 1962 is held by NRW · Metadata lists update frequency as 'continual', which conflicts with the monthly update stated in the summary
Evidence
- https://datamap.gov.wales/layers/geonode:nrw_water_quality_archive_stations
- https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/762b8b0e-b6ab-477c-baa4-fa24531053a8/nrw-open-water-quality-archive
Check upstream coverage, uncertainty and licence before use. Station observations are not forecasts or design levels.