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47-576: Severn Trent Water Authority was one of ten regional water authorities established in 1974. Its area of operation was the catchments of the River Trent and River Severn . It assumed the powers and responsibilities of existing water supply authorities in those catchment areas, the Severn River Authority , the Trent River Authority and the sewage and sewage disposal responsibilities of

94-402: A rating curve must be constructed. A rating curve is the functional relation between stage and discharge. It is determined by making repeated discrete measurements of streamflow discharge using a velocimeter and some means to measure the channel geometry to determine the cross-sectional area of the channel. The technicians and hydrologists responsible for determining the rating curve visit

141-561: A current meter or Acoustic Doppler current profiler . One informal methods that is not acceptable for any official or scientific purpose, but can be useful is the float method , in which a floating object such as a piece of wood or orange peel is observed floating down the stream. The first routine measurements of river flow in England began on the Thames and Lea in the 1880s, and in Scotland on

188-429: A branch of Environment and Climate Change Canada . As of 2021, it operates or collects data from more than 2800 gauges across Canada. This data is used by provincial and territory governments to inform flood predictions and water management. In Sri Lanka stream and rivers are monitored by Hydrology and Disaster Management Division a branch of Irrigation Department . It operates nearly 40 gauging station around

235-451: A central data logging facility. Automated direct measurement of stream discharge is difficult at present. Mathematically, measuring stream discharge is estimating the volumetric flow rate , which is in general a flux integral and thus requires many cross-sectional velocity measurements. In place of the direct measurement of stream discharge, one or more surrogate measurements can be used as proxy variables to produce discharge values. In

282-520: A few gauges to provide advisories for navigational purposes. In the Czech Republic, in some measuring places (profiles) are defined three levels which define three degrees of flood-emergency activity. The degree I is a situation of alertness, the degree II is a situation of readiness, the degree III is a situation of danger. Canadian streams and rivers are monitored by the Water Survey of Canada ,

329-448: A much smaller part of their activities. They managed 139,000 miles (224,000 km) of water mains, 850 water treatment works, 141,000 miles (227,000 km) of sewers and 6,500 sewage treatment works. Although all aspects of water management were under one body for each region, the new authorities still had to deal with two government departments when major capital expenditure was involved. For flood protection and land drainage schemes,

376-565: A number of reservoirs . These included: It also operated the filtration works at the Elan Valley Reservoirs It also had abstraction licences for river abstractions which included operating rules linked to storage at both Clywedog reservoir and Lake Vyrnwy although no water from those reservoirs was directly piped to supply. Regional water authority The idea of organising water management into regions based on river catchments had been around for nearly 100 years, since

423-448: A stream where the geometry is relatively stable and there is a suitable location to make discrete direct measurements of streamflow using specialized equipment. Many times this will be at a bridge or other stream crossing. Technicians then install equipment that measures the stage (the elevation of the water surface) or, more rarely, the velocity of the flow. Additional equipment is installed to record and transmit these readings (via

470-488: Is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water . Hydrometric measurements of water level surface elevation (" stage ") and/or volumetric discharge (flow) are generally taken and observations of biota and water quality may also be made. The locations of gauging stations are often found on topographical maps . Some gauging stations are highly automated and may include telemetry capability transmitted to

517-560: Is a pollution incident. Since 2013 these responsibilities in Wales have been held by Natural Resources Wales . The Scottish water industry has followed a different path to that in England and Wales. In 1946 local authorities were mandated to provide drinking water supplies to their communities. The first major rationalisation of the system took place as a result of the Water (Scotland) Act 1967 , which created 13 Regional Water Boards, drawing together

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564-484: Is an extensive network covering all major rivers and catchments in the country. However, a review of existing gauges raised serious concerns about the reliability of the data of a minority of stations, due in part to ongoing funding problems. The largest stream gauge network in Bangladesh is maintained by Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB). At few other locations, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority maintains

611-409: Is constructed that relates stage of the stream to cross-sectional area. Using these two ratings, the automatically collected stage produces an estimate of the cross-sectional area, and the automatically collected index velocity produces an estimate of the mean velocity of the cross section . The streamflow discharge is computed as the product of the estimate of the cross section area and the estimate of

658-642: The Environment Agency when that was created in 1995. Economic regulation of the new companies was initially managed by the Office of Water Services, which was renamed as the Water Services Regulation Authority in April 2006. Both bodies are informally known as Ofwat . Ofwat has four principal roles, which are to ensure that the interests of customers are protected, to set price limits, to ensure that

705-695: The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite ) to the Water Science Center office where the records are kept. The USGS has a Water Science Center office in every state within the United States. Current streamflow data from USGS streamgages may be viewed in map form at: [2] . In Zimbabwe , the national stream gauge network is the responsibility of the Zimbabwe National Water Authority . This

752-515: The Midlands of England and also a small area of Wales. The remaining regulatory and control functions such as pollution control , flood prevention and water resource management were subsumed into the newly formed National Rivers Authority . It took over the following public-sector statutory water undertakers: Section 12 of the Water Act 1973 stated that “where the area of a water authority includes

799-504: The River Garry in 1913. The national gauging station network was established in its current form by the early 1970s and consists of approximately 1500 flow measurement stations supplemented by a variable number of temporary monitoring sites. The Environment Agency is responsible for collection and analysis of hydrometric data in England, Natural Resources Wales in Wales, whilst responsibility for Scotland and Northern Ireland rests with

846-596: The Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Rivers Agency respectively. In the United States, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the principal federal agency tasked with maintaining records of natural resources . Within the USGS, the Water Resources Division carries the responsibility for monitoring water resources. To establish a stream gauge, USGS personnel first choose a site on

893-500: The 1973 Act. However, the idea was not pursued at the time, but from the 1930s, the idea took shape. First came catchment boards , created by the Land Drainage Act 1930 . While they were primarily concerned with land drainage and the prevention of flooding, they paved the way for river boards , which were established in 1948, and covered the whole of England and Wales. As well as land drainage, they were responsible for fisheries,

940-585: The 210 separate organisations that had been responsible for water supply in 1945. Although they worked well on a technical level, the issues of funding had not been adequately addressed. Because the cost of providing new sources of clean water was often beyond the abilities of local authorities to cope, the Central Scotland Water Development Board was also created by the Act and given the responsibility of providing new sources. They would then supply

987-551: The Act had been handled by 234 separate organisations. The Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 changed this system, and from April 1996 all water supply and sewerage services were provided by three publicly owned Regional Water Authorities, the North of Scotland Water Authority, the West of Scotland Water Authority, and the East of Scotland Water Authority. The West of Scotland Water Authority

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1034-715: The Borders, the Lothians, Fife and Kinross, the Forth Valley, and parts of North Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire. The North of Scotland Water Authority covered the rest of Scotland, including the Highlands, Grampian and Tayside regions on the mainland, and Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. The Scottish Water and Sewerage Customers' Council had an overall responsibility for monitoring water services. The post of Water Industry Commissioner

1081-546: The Duke of Richmond had introduced an Act of Parliament with the title River Conservancy in 1878 promoting the idea. The council of the Society of Arts had offered to award medals for plans to divide England and Wales into watershed districts, to assist in the conservancy of natural resources. The silver medal was awarded to Frederick Toplis in 1879, whose twelve watershed districts cover remarkably similar areas to those established under

1128-609: The Secretary of State for Wales in the case of the Welsh Authority, appointed the chairman, and between six and twelve other members, while two more members were appointed by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The size of the board differed from authority to authority, with the smallest being 14 governors plus a chairman for Wessex Water and South West Water, and the largest being Thames Water, with over 50 members. Over half of

1175-528: The councils within its area. It took its name from the two major rivers in this area, the Severn and the Trent . In July 1989, the authority was partly privatised under the Water Act 1989 , together with most of the rest of the water supply and sewage disposal industry in England and Wales, to form Severn Trent Water, with a responsibility to supply freshwater and treat sewage for around 8 million people living in

1222-488: The disposal of effluent. Most uses of water are interconnected, since the removal of water from a river for spray irrigation reduces the amount of water available for drinking water supply, and the pollution of a river by sewage prevents such a use. Most drinking water supplies had been managed by local authorities, but the Central Advisory Water Committee , which reported in 1971, had found that this system

1269-407: The establishment of the water authorities in April 1974, England and Wales had, for the first time, organisations which were responsible for all aspects of the management of water within a geographical region, defined by a river basin or a series of river basins. As well as the management of water resources, which they inherited from the river authorities, they were also responsible for water supply and

1316-482: The formulation of the Water Industry (Scotland) Bill, which would replace the three Regional Water Authorities with a single, publicly owned body to be known as Scottish Water, This became the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002. The Water Industry Commission survived the transition, and acts in a similar way to Ofwat in England and Wales. Stream gauge A stream gauge , streamgage or stream gauging station

1363-512: The functions of the water and sewerage companies can be adequately financed and fulfilled, and to measure the standards of service and compliance with the conditions of their licences. The Environment Agency is responsible for maintaining and improving the quality of the environment, and aspects of this that affect the water and sewerage companies include monitoring their compliance with discharge consents, recording any pollution incidents that occur, and taking action and monitoring its effect when there

1410-433: The functions responsible for sewerage and sewage disposal from all local authorities, including main drainage authorities, within its area; however, section 15 of the Water Act 1973 allowed district (but not county) councils to enter into agency agreements with water authorities whereby the district councils became their "agents" for the maintenance and design and construction of new sewers. The company abstracted water from

1457-453: The limits of supply of these two companies. The water authority took over the following public-sector bulk water suppliers: It took over the following main drainage authorities, which were joint boards set up to deal with the main sewerage and sewage treatment in their respective areas: It took over two river authorities, responsible for control of water pollution, water resource management and flood prevention: The authority also took over

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1504-434: The majority of cases, a stage (the elevation of the water surface) measurement is used as the surrogate. Low gradient (or shallow-sloped) streams are highly influenced by variable downstream channel conditions. For these streams, a second stream gauge would be installed, and the slope of the water surface would be calculated between the gauges. This value would be used along with the stage measurement to more accurately determine

1551-419: The mean velocity of the streamflow. A variety of hydraulic structures / primary device are used to improve the reliability of using water level as a surrogate for flow (improving the accuracy of the rating table), including: Other equipment commonly used at permanent stream gauge include: Water level gauges: Discharge measurements of a stream or canal without an established stream gauge can be made using

1598-445: The members were nominated by local authorities, and so the statutory appointments were normally based on technical expertise, to complement the more local interests of local authority appointments. By the mid-1980s, the water authorities had an annual turnover of around £2,600 million, and employed some 51,000 people. Their major concern was the provision of potable water and the treatment of sewage, with environmental services occupying

1645-574: The powers of the Land Drainage Act 1930 and the Land Drainage Act 1961 were largely unaltered, and the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture was required. For other capital works, it was the Department of the Environment which could sanction them. For such schemes, a regional water authority could attempt to get parliamentary approval through a private bill , but the complexities of the process meant that

1692-486: The preferred option was to apply for an order under the Water Act 1945 . This was then dealt with by the Secretary of State for the Environment. In 1989 the ten water authorities were privatised, with each becoming a water and sewerage company, and other responsibilities such as land drainage, river pollution prevention and control, and fisheries being passed to the National Rivers Authority , and subsequently

1739-678: The prevention of pollution and the gauging of rivers. River boards were replaced by twenty-seven river authorities as a result of the Water Resources Act 1963 , and they gained further responsibilities, covering the monitoring of water quality and the protection of water resources. They thus became responsible for inland waters, coastal waters and the underground strata which existed within their area. Sewerage boards had been largely responsible for sewage collection and disposal in areas defined by local authority boundaries and water supply had been managed by quasi-regional water boards . With

1786-416: The quality of treatment, but the water authorities were given the task. Some 1,400 sewage authorities were divided among the ten water authorities, as it was recognised that the discharge of treated effluent was a major element in the total hydrologic system. The ten new authorities were: Governance of the regional water authorities was by boards of governors. The Secretary of State for the Environment, or

1833-406: The site routinely, with special trips to measure the hydrologic extremes (floods and droughts), and make a discharge measurement by following an explicit set of instructions or standard operating procedures (SOPs). Once the rating curve is established, it can be used in conjunction with stage measurements to determine the volumetric streamflow discharge. This record then serves as an assessment of

1880-403: The streamflow discharge. Improvements in the accuracy of velocity sensors have also allowed the use of water velocity as a reliable surrogate for streamflow discharge at sites with a stable cross-sectional area. These sensors are permanently mounted in the stream and measure velocity at a particular location in the stream. In those instances where only a stage measurement is used as the surrogate,

1927-424: The technician or hydrologist at a variety of stages. For each discrete determination of streamflow discharge, the mean velocity of the cross section is determined by dividing streamflow discharge by the cross-sectional area. A rating curve, similar to that used for stage-discharge determinations, is constructed using the mean velocity and the index velocity from the permanently mounted meter. An additional rating curve

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1974-475: The volume of water that passes by the stream gauge and is useful for many tasks associated with hydrology. In those instances where a velocity measurement is additionally used as a surrogate, an index velocity determination is conducted. This analysis uses a velocity sensor, often either magnetic or acoustic, to measure the velocity of the flow at a particular location in the stream cross section. Once again, discrete measurements of streamflow discharge are made by

2021-558: The water to local authorities in bulk. With the passing of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 , larger regions were created, and responsibility for water supply passed to the nine regional councils of Highland, Grampian, Tayside, Fife, Lothian, Borders, Central, Strathclyde, and Dumfries and Galloway. A tenth Island Area included Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles, although they continued to act independently. They were also given responsibility for sewage treatment, which prior to

2068-438: The whole or part of the limits of supply of a statutory water company, the authority shall discharge their duties with respect to the supply of water within those limits through the company.” The following two private statutory water companies continued to supply water as before within their limits as supply but only as "agents" of the water authority: The water authority remained responsible for sewerage and sewage disposal within

2115-537: Was created under Part II of the Water Industry Act 1999. As the economic regulator for the water industry , and with the need to spend huge sums on investment, to meet the ever-increasing demands of water quality and sewage treatment, a study was carried out into ways to achieve economies, and identified that saving of between £100 million and £168 million could be made if the three water authorities collaborated on issues such as asset management. This led to

2162-610: Was inflexible, and the new water authorities took over 157 water supply undertakings from local authorities and joint water boards. Some thirty independent water supply companies remained, but operated under agency agreements with the new bodies. The treatment and disposal of sewage was also removed from the local authorities and given to the regional water authorities. The Working Party on Sewage Disposal, which reported in 1970, had suggested that there were over 3,000 treatment plants which were producing sub-standard effluent discharges. Over many years there had been little incentive to improve

2209-660: Was the largest of the three, serving some 2.25 million people occupying an area of over 7,700 square miles (20,000 km ), previously managed by Strathclyde and Dumfries and Galloway Regional Councils. This includes major cities, industrial areas and large rural tracts. Water is obtained largely from surface sources, including 13 lochs, 134 impounding reservoirs and 95 abstraction points, on streams, springs and boreholes. The East of Scotland Water Authority supplied 1.58 million people from 107 surface water sources, which include lochs, reservoirs and rivers, and 32 groundwater sources. Its area of responsibility covered Edinburgh,

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