England River Water Quality Dataset
Annual nutrient, oxygen and pH values at English river monitoring points, computed from discrete laboratory samples in the Environment Agency Water Quality Archive.
Methodology
Individual sample results are read from the Water Quality Archive and reduced to annual figures per monitoring point. Results the laboratory reported as below its detection limit are excluded from the mean rather than counted as their limit or as zero, and a year is published only where such results were fewer than half of it and at least eight samples were taken. pH is published as an annual median rather than a mean, because the scale is logarithmic and arithmetic averaging of it is not a valid operation. Nutrients keep the basis the Environment Agency reports them on — nitrate as nitrogen, orthophosphate as phosphorus — in their own metrics, rather than being converted into the ionic basis used by drinking-water standards.
What this dataset cannot tell you
Coverage
| Subjects | English freshwater river monitoring points with at least ten years of record — 4,846 held |
|---|---|
| Period | 2000–2025 |
| Units | %, mg/l, mg/l as N, mg/l as P, pH |
| Update cadence | Annually |
| Identifier | england-river-water-quality v1.0.0 |
Fields
Data dictionary →Every metric this dataset carries, with the unit it is stored in and the geography level it is reported at. Full definitions are in the data dictionary.
| Identifier | Field | Unit | Reported at |
|---|---|---|---|
nitrate-as-n | Nitrate as nitrogen | mg/l as N | monitoring-station |
orthophosphate-as-p | Orthophosphate as phosphorus | mg/l as P | monitoring-station |
ammoniacal-nitrogen | Ammoniacal nitrogen | mg/l as N | monitoring-station |
dissolved-oxygen | Dissolved oxygen | mg/l | monitoring-station, river-gauge |
dissolved-oxygen-saturation | Dissolved oxygen saturation | % | monitoring-station, river-gauge |
ph | pH | pH | monitoring-station, supply-zone |
Rights and access
Licence position
Open with attribution. Derivative use true; redistribution true; commercial reuse true.
Attribution required:
- Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Permitted uses
- Public display
- Derived analysis
- API delivery
- Bulk download
- Commercial use
Available to: Public, Developer, Research, Professional, Enterprise. These follow from the rights of the contributing publishers, not from a Hydrionis pricing decision — no access tier can widen what a publisher withheld.
Contributing sources
Suggested citation
Hydrionis (2026), England River Water Quality Dataset, version 1.0.0. Retrieved from https://hydrionis.com/data/datasets/england-river-water-quality/
Cite the version. Hydrionis datasets change as publishers release and as methods are revised, and a citation without a version cannot be checked later.
Changelog
Version 1.0.0 — 2026-08-24
First release.
Additions
- Annual values for six determinands at 4,846 English river monitoring points.
Getting the data
Machine-readable metadata for this dataset is at /api/v1/datasets/england-river-water-quality.json. For bulk extracts, higher-volume access or commercial licensing, see data enquiries.