Farmers looking to be kept informed with local river levels can now access real-time data gathered by over 2,400 river level monitoring stations in England and Wales through a new GaugeMap website and via Twitter.
Users can visit the website to search by geographical location, river name, catchment area or river status (normal level, below average or risk of flooding) and are also able to follow on Twitter any gauges that will be of interest to them. A unique Twitter account has been created for each one. For example, Wissey Sluice in Norfolk now has its own Twitter account: @riverlevel_1518. Twice per day, each gauge tweets its current status but this can be increased during periods of flooding. River level data is set to a five-day historic view when a gauge is clicked, and shows lowest and average levels, and flood risk level.
Live Flood Warning map
GaugeMap follows Shoothill's successful Flood Alerts service, mapping the EA’s flood warnings for England and Wales. Originally designed for Facebook, the flood mapping system is now hosted on the Environment Agency's website. Users can register for flood alerts for particular locations of interest.