Water Quality Monitoring Data for Chemical Substances Since 2007

The Environment Agency in the UK uses semi-quantitative gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS and LC-MS) targeted screening methods to analyse water samples for a wide range of substances at once. This dataset represents positive GC-MS and LC-MS results for samples collected and analysed by the Environment Agency since 2007. It includes substance detection, method used, limit of detection, sampling location and time, sample type, purpose, material, and semi-quantitative concentration measurements.

Use Cases

• Tracking temporal trends of chemical contaminants based on sampling location and time
• Comparing detection sensitivity across analytical methods based on the method used and limit of detection
• Mapping potential pollution sources based on substance detection and sampling location
• Assessing contamination levels in different water types based on sample type and semi-quantitative concentration

Strengths

• Data collection began in 2007, providing a multi-year time series
• Includes semi-quantitative concentration measurements (µg/l) where available
• Covers a wide range of substances analyzed via GC-MS and LC-MS methods

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency

Collection Method

Semi-quantitative GC-MS and LC-MS targeted screening of water samples

Time Range

Since 2007