Maine River Water Quality Metrics: Dissolved Oxygen and Temperature

NIEA’s Freshwater Monitoring and Assessment team deployed a field probe for long-term, high-frequency water quality monitoring in the Maine River downstream of the M2 Bridge. The probe records Dissolved Oxygen (% saturation) and temperature (°C) every 30 minutes, with data loaded publicly approximately every 30 days. Data is provisional and non-validated, with sensor accuracy specified as +/- 5% for oxygen and +/- 0.1°C for temperature.

Use Cases

• Modeling dissolved oxygen dynamics based on high-frequency, 30-minute interval measurements.
• Analyzing water temperature trends in a river system based on continuous sensor data.
• Developing anomaly detection models for sensor malfunction based on the described accuracy ranges and provisional data status.
• Studying the relationship between temperature and oxygen saturation in freshwater habitats.

Strengths

• High-frequency data collection at 30-minute intervals.
• Sensor accuracy is specified: +/- 5% for dissolved oxygen and +/- 0.1°C for temperature.
• Part of a long-term monitoring project, suggesting temporal depth.

Limitations

• Data is explicitly non-validated and provisional, subject to revision.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total temporal coverage are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) Freshwater Monitoring and Assessment team, published via OpenDataNI.

Collection Method

Collected via an optical DO sensor and temperature sensor deployed in the river.

Freshness

Data is loaded onto the public platform approximately every 30 days; last metadata update was 2026-03-18.

Geography

Maine River, downstream of the M2 Bridge, Northern Ireland, UK.