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Data sources & credits

This map is built from open data published by regulators, water companies and research bodies, and from readings sent in by community groups. We're grateful to every one of them.

Who owns this data

Apart from Full Circle Labs' own sampling, none of the data on this map is ours. Each dataset still belongs to the organisation that published or contributed it, and we show it under their terms and credit them, here and wherever it appears on the map. We bring it together so anyone can see the state of a river in one place, free of charge, and we don't claim anyone else's data or sell it. Downloads and the data API carry each dataset's own licence and credit, and partner data is only shared in the ways the partner has agreed to.

Reuse. You can't use data from this map commercially unless that dataset's licence allows it. Most of the public-sector data is under the Open Government Licence, which does allow it as long as you credit the publisher, but Full Circle Labs' sampling and partner data need the owner's written permission first.

Water quality monitoring

• Environment Agency: Water Quality Archive (England), the map's largest source, plus the Catchment Data Explorer and designated bathing water classifications.
• Natural Resources Wales: Open Water Quality Archive (river and lake samples in Wales), continuous water-quality sondes on the Wye, Cleddau, Teifi and Ogmore, and rainfall.
• Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) / Northern Ireland Environment Agency: river water quality monitoring in Northern Ireland.
• Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA): water classification and bathing waters in Scotland.
• Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA): bathing waters in Northern Ireland.

Community and citizen science

• Full Circle Labs: our own field sampling.
• The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire: contributed catchment sampling.
• WildReach: contributed catchment sampling.
• Angling Trust, Anglers Against Pollution: river sampling by the volunteers of its Water Quality Monitoring Network, shared with permission.
• Independent contributors who upload their own sampling data. We don't name individuals here, and never publish personal details on the map.

Storm overflows (CSOs)

Near-real-time discharge status and event duration monitoring published by the water and sewerage companies. Discharge history from before we read the companies' own feeds comes from Surfers Against Sewage - Data HQ.

• Anglian Water
• Northumbrian Water
• Scottish Water
• Severn Trent Water
• South West Water
• Southern Water
• Thames Water
• United Utilities
• Welsh Water (Dŵr Cymru)
• Wessex Water
• Yorkshire Water

Rivers, catchments and rainfall

• Ordnance Survey: OS Open Rivers river network. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right.
• DAERA: the river network, waterbody catchments and monitoring-site names for Northern Ireland.
• UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology: National River Flow Archive catchment boundaries, and catchment rainfall for Northern Ireland (data from the UK National River Flow Archive, derived from Met Office HadUK-Grid).
• Environment Agency: daily rainfall, river levels, flood warnings, continuous monitoring (sondes and flow), and the Ecology & Fish Data Explorer. This uses Environment Agency rainfall data from the real-time data API (Beta).
• SEPA and Natural Resources Wales: daily rainfall from their gauge networks.
• Rain radar: from LibreWXR (CC BY 4.0). UK radar © EUMETNET OPERA, Open Radar Data (RODEO), CC BY 4.0, which includes the Met Office's radars.

Wildlife and geology

• Natural England: Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Areas of Conservation and chalk rivers.
• British Geological Survey: 1:625,000 bedrock geology, © UKRI.
• Rural Payments Agency: Crop Map of England (CROME) 2024, the cropland in a site's catchment, under the Open Government Licence.

Mapping and tools

• OpenStreetMap contributors: basemap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
• CARTO: basemap tiles and styles.
• what3words: three-word addresses for sampling sites.
• Uber H3, deck.gl and MapLibre GL: hexagonal binning and rendering.

Public sector data is used under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where stated otherwise. National River Flow Archive data is used under the NRFA's own terms, fetched when viewed and not stored or offered for download. Readings are shown as published, so any errors in how we've combined or displayed them are ours, not the providers'.

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