Shoothill adds Live Groundwater and River Flow levels to GaugeMap

Feb. 5, 2015 - PRLog -- In addition to providing access to over 2,400 river level gauges across England and Wales, users of the award-winning Shoothill GaugeMap (http://www.gaugemap.co.uk/) service can now access live groundwater and river flow data recorded every 15 minutes, by the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales.

Since the launch of GaugeMap (http://www.gaugemap.co.uk/) in 2014, the service has become the ‘go-to’ resource for those who not only use the river networks for leisure but also those who want to find out more about the environment and the different effects that irrigation, industry, recreation, flood control and treatment has on our natural resources.

As more and more environmental data is being made available by the Environment Agency as part of its commitment to ‘Open Data’, so the release of Groundwater and Flow data is a welcome addition to the work already undertaken by the Environment Agency in this area.

Miranda Kavanagh, Executive Director of Evidence, Environment Agency said:  “We’re committed to ensuring that the huge amount of information we hold is made available to the public and the addition of live groundwater and river flow levels to GaugeMap is a great example of how this open data can be used to inform communities and businesses.”

Rod Plummer, Managing Director of Shoothill added “Climate change in future years is forecast to have an impact on not only on the amount of rain that supports river flows and replenishes groundwater, but also on the demand for water itself.  Groundwater is a hidden but vital resource with many different roles,  for example, today it provides at least a third of England and Wales’s drinking water and in some areas of Southern England, groundwater is the source of up to 80% of the drinking water available through our taps”.

Equally as important is the river flow data, which although useful for recreational purposes, is also extremely important for the management of water resources, the design of water-related structures (reservoirs, bridges, flood banks, etc.), the insurance market and in flood warning and alleviation schemes.

All of the Environment Agency data used in GaugeMap is also available as Open Data through the Environment Agency Data APIs (http://www.shoothill.com/environment-agency-liveapi/envir...) provided by Shoothill.

ENDS

For more information please contact Victoria Hammond, Shoothill, on 0845 421 0390 or email victoria.hammond@shoothill.com

Notes to Editors

Shoothill (www.shoothill.com) is a leading data visualisation software developer specialising in creating in-house and bespoke software solutions for a diverse range of clients.

Using interactive maps and other powerful visualisation technologies, the company specialises in transforming complex statistical or geographic data into dynamic and easily accessible formats for anyone to use. For example, in 2012, Shoothill Launched FloodAlerts (http://wwwnews.live.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26189096) (the UK's first interactive Live flood warning map) used extensively by the EA, BBC and many others and in 2014 it launched Shoothill GaugeMap (over 2400 live river and tide gauges mapped and each one tweeting its level twice a day).

Clients include the BBC, Environment Agency, Microsoft, Formula One, Virgin, BT, The United Nations, amongst many others.