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Headwater stream quality for Britain

Publisher
Environmental Information Data Centre
Updated
30 July 2026
Topic
Not set
Licence
Not set

Summary

Data consist of modelled estimates of observed/expected Biological Monitoring Working Party (an index for measuring the biological quality of rivers using selected families of macroinvertebrates as biological indicators) scores for freshwater streams across Great Britain (GB). The BMWP scores (1-10) are based on the principle that macroinvertebrates differ in their perceived sensitivity or tolerance to organic pollution (i.e. nutrient enrichment). Values greater than 1 indicate high water quality. Data pooled across two survey years (1998 and 2007) was used to model the relationships between headwater stream quality and catchment/stream characteristics for headwater streams across GB based on known relationships for headwater streams in Countryside Survey squares. Modelled estimates of stream water quality were based on a Boosted Regression Tree modelling approach . Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/85e7beb6-e031-4397-a090-841b8c907d1b

Data links

Link Format Preview Updated
Supporting information ZIP 30/7/2026
Download the data 30/7/2026

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Additional information

Source Metadata
XML, HTML
Date added
25 July 2026
Harvest GUID
85e7beb6-e031-4397-a090-841b8c907d1b
Extent (Latitude)
60.861° to 49.864°
Extent (Longitude)
-8.648° to 1.768°
Dataset reference date (publication)
2016-02-04
Frequency of update
notPlanned
Access constraints
© Natural England
Responsible party
(author, pointOfContact, publisher, owner, custodian)
ISO 19139 resource type
dataset
Metadata language
eng