Submitted by Steve Turner on
Earlier this month the National River Flow Archive (NRFA) hosted over 40 Environment Agency (EA) Hydrologists at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology for a workshop on river flow data quality.
The day began with NRFA Manager Isabella Tindall and EA Technical Specialist Hydrologist for the Thames area Emma Cross welcoming the group and setting out the objectives for the day; improving ways of working, sharing best practice and developing collaborations between the NRFA & EA. They were followed by NRFA Scientific Lead, Jamie Hannaford’s presentation on how the NRFA use the EA’s data.
Next up, the group heard from the EA’s Jane Allam, a Technical Specialist Hydrologist for the Herts & North London area who explained what the EA’s multi-year checks on daily mean flow data entail. The final presentation of the morning was from the NRFA’s Data Quality Coordinator, Cath Sefton who explained the NRFA’s data acquisition and quality control processes.
The afternoon session consisted of the group splitting up, to attend four breakout sessions in order to discuss; how errors are corrected on both the NRFA & EA archives; the future of river flow data quality control; sharing best practices and methods, and lastly, quality control of extreme flows.
The workshop objectives were well and truly met and the event allowed Hydrologists from the NRFA & EA to not only meet each other but to develop closer working relationships between the two organisations, which will ultimately lead to an increase in quality of river flow data.
Thank you to all at the Environment Agency who attended and contributed, and to Emma Cross and John Waddingham of the EA who made the event possible.
