The Lakes surveillance network is a statistically designed national monitoring network consisting of an unbiased and representative samples of lakes across England.
It will give a clear picture of lake health across England by monitoring a wide range of parameters, supporting condition assessment and detection of change.
LSN monitoring follows a rotating panel design that balances temporal and spatial coverage.
Across the complete monitoring cycle, 420 unique sites will be monitored.
This Analysis Ready Dataset contains details of the network design and sampling locations, physical parameters, and water quality samples carried out since 01 April 2024 providing an initial, partial dataset while the network is being implemented. Further data from biological, chemical and lake naturalness assessments will be released in future iterations up to 2028.
This release of the data reflects a network that is still in development, so users should be aware of current limitations related to representativeness, sampling balance, data variability, and exclusions.
The Lakes Surveillance Network is a project funded by the UK Government through Defra's Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme.
The NCEA is Defra's largest research and development (R&D) programme. It will produce a baseline of our natural assets by 2029; enabling a natural capital approach to policy and decision-making.
Users should ensure they have read the NCEA Analysis Ready Data Limitations Statement and dataset specific limitations/caveats outlined in the Data Dictionary. Attribution statement: © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2026. All rights reserved.
