River Water Quality Monitoring 1990 to 2018: Nitrite and Other Parameters

Raw data from Northern Ireland's river monitoring sites, collected under the Water Framework Directive from 1990 to 2018, includes measurements for nitrite and other physico-chemical properties. This dataset is the first in a series of open water data releases from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA). Surface water status assessments rely on this data for biological, hydromorphological, and physico-chemical criteria, but the raw values require processing and contain potential errors.

Use Cases

• Calculating Water Framework Directive status for rivers and lakes based on physico-chemical parameters like nitrite.
• Analyzing long-term trends in nutrient conditions and oxygenation from 1990 to 2018.
• Identifying potential sampling errors or contamination events from raw, unprocessed measurement values.
• Correlating biological quality assessments with underlying chemical data from monitoring sites.

Strengths

• Covers a long temporal range from 1990 to 2018.
• Supports a major regulatory framework (Water Framework Directive) for environmental compliance.
• Is part of a planned series of open water data releases, indicating ongoing curation.

Limitations

• Metadata is incomplete: row counts, column names, and specific file sizes are not provided across all sources.
• Data is raw and unprocessed, containing potential errors from typos, sampling, or contamination that affect status calculations.
• Critical metadata for calculations, such as Limits of Detection/Quantitation, altitude, and alkalinity, are not included in the dataset.

Provenance

Source

Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) / Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA)

Collection Method

Monitoring from river and lake sites, likely as part of regulatory Water Framework Directive compliance.

Time Range

1990 to 2018

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04 15 according to one source; other sources list no update date.

Geography

Northern Ireland (rivers, lakes, transitional waters, and coastal waters)