Matthew Fry

The effective management of national hydrometric data: experiences from the United Kingdom

Abstract Access to hydrometric information underpins many areas of effective water management. This paper explores the operational practices of one national hydrological information service, the UK National River Flow Archive, in collating, managing and providing access to river flow data. An information lifecycle approach to hydrometric data management is advocated, with the paper detailing current UK procedures in the areas of: monitoring network design and development; data sensing and recording; validation and archival; synthesis and analysis; and data dissemination. The methods and policies outlined herein are widely transferable to other hydrological data archives around the world. Editor D. Koutsoyiannis Citation Dixon, H., Hannaford, J., and Fry, M.J., 2013. The effective management of national hydrometric data: experiences from the United Kingdom. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (7), 1383–1399.

An assessment of the surface water resources of the Juba-Shabelle basin in southern Somalia

Abstract The water resources of the Juba and Shabelle rivers in southern Somalia are important for irrigation and food production, but are influenced by seasonal floods. Prior to the outbreak of civil war in 1991, the Somali Ministry of Agriculture successfully operated a hydrometric network covering the Juba and the Shabelle, data from which provided input to a flow forecasting model. The war resulted in the neglect and abandonment of monitoring stations and an enforced cessation of data collection and management. In 2001 and 2002, part of the pre-war hydrometric network was reinstated and water levels were again recorded at some stations. This paper examines the implications of the 11-year hiatus in data collection, and the now much reduced monitoring network, for assessing and managing the surface water resources. The problems faced have relevance to other basins, within Africa and elsewhere, where there has been a similar decline in data collection. Citation Houghton-Carr, H. A., Print, C. R., Fry, M. J., Gadain, H. & Muchiri, P. (2011) An assessment of the surface water resources of the Juba-Shabelle basin in southern Somalia. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56(5), 759–774.