Shoothill GaugeMap is an award winning interactive map with the latest British river level, flow and groundwater data from Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Source: “About” section of GaugeMap / Image: Martin Howard CC BY 2.0

Useful information

Download: web

Price: free

Language: English

Runs offline: no

Last update: 

Website of the developer:  Shoothill

Description

GaugeMap is a web application awarded with the Open Data Award 2014 whose mission is to show the height of the water in English and Welsh gauging stations. As the website includes, the displayed data are collected at intervals of 15 minutes from Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

The information is shown respect to three variables:

  • Water level, distinguishing between the stations with risk of flooding, those which record usual values or are below the usual level and other stations, associated, for example, to coastal areas and height of the tides. For each station a specific chart with the evolution experienced by the water level over the past six days is generated. The representation can be customized, displaying the maximum and minimum levels, the dates of these events, the usual range and the current level. In addition, each station generates its own timeline on Twitter that you can follow to be informed of possible floods.
  • Groundwater level, with information of the piezometric level.
  • River flow, expressed in m3/s, which is the volume of water which passes through a given cross-section of the river channel.

The stations can be located through the dialog box that incorporates the web app, introducing therein the name of the river, geographic area, etc. In case you want to save these stations as favorites, you are prompted to register through your Facebook account.

More information

http://www.gaugemap.co.uk/

http://www.realwire.com/releases/GaugeMap-Brings-River-Data-to-Life-for-the-First-Time-via-Twitter

http://www.nationalfloodforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Explanation-of-Gaugemap-and-its-features-for-NFF-3.pdf

Images: Screenshots 16/11/2015. ©ShootHill

Rating
4.5

Analysis

A few weeks ago, this web analyzed FloodAlerts, a web application also designed by ShootHill. Although both tools are complementary, it must be remembered that FloodAlerts warns about the surface that can be affected in a flood, while GaugeMap monitors the height recorded by the water surface.

As FloodAlerts, GaugeMap also makes an intensive use of social networks to keep citizens informed about the possible risks of flooding. In this case, Twitter is particularly important for the particular monitoring of each station, being able to take as reference any of the gauges located along the river course. The representation of the water level is very easy to understand with a quick look and it also may be included as a widget on any web page (an example would be the website of this district of Manchester). An issue to improve would be the way of registering, because the only alternative to complete this step is Facebook.

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Técnico de medio ambiente, community manager y content curator especializada en temas de medioambiente - Environmental technician, community manager and content curator specialised in environmental issues