Welsh Stream Water Quality Survey for Forested and Felled Catchments

Water quality survey results from small streams across Wales draining forested and felled catchments. The data includes analysis of major, minor, trace, and ultra-trace elements, nutrients, pH, and Gran alkalinity. Sampling was conducted opportunistically from September 1995 to November 1997 under both dry and wet weather conditions.

Use Cases

• Analyze concentrations of major, minor, trace, and ultra-trace elements to identify pollution sources from forestry activities.
• Compare pH and Gran alkalinity measurements between baseflow and stormflow conditions to assess groundwater versus soil runoff chemistry.
• Model nutrient levels across different soil types and catchment conditions to evaluate impacts of conifer harvesting.
• Assess water quality variability using opportunistic sampling data collected during both dry and very wet weather periods.

Strengths

• Includes a wide range of water quality measurements: major, minor, trace, and ultra-trace elements, nutrients, pH, and Gran alkalinity.
• Sampling designed to capture both baseflow and stormflow conditions, providing data for groundwater and soil endmember chemistries.
• Monitoring period spans over two years, from September 1995 to November 1997.
• Survey covers small catchment sites (2 to 5 ha) across Wales with varied sampling frequency (1 to 10 samplings per site).

Limitations

• Opportunistic sampling method leads to inconsistent sampling frequency (1 to 10 times per site), limiting temporal comparability.
• Small catchment size (2 to 5 ha) may not be representative of larger watershed processes.
• Data temporal coverage ends in 1997, making it potentially stale for contemporary environmental modeling.

Provenance

Source

Environmental Information Data Centre.

Collection Method

Opportunistic water sampling with aid from Forest Enterprise staff during dry and very wet weather.

Time Range

September 7, 1995 to November 18, 1997.

Freshness

Data last updated in the system on 2026-03-11, but the underlying monitoring period ended in November 1997.

Geography

Small stream catchments across Wales.