The Environment Agency Chalk groundwater level monitoring network in England

Abstract

Abstract This paper reviews the Environment Agency chalk groundwater level monitoring network. The network has evolved over many years to enable management of the resource and to assess the impact of abstractions on the environment. The paper considers the strengths and weaknesses of the network, the use and accessibility of the data and how the network supports, and works with, the Environment Agency's regional groundwater models. It concludes with the suggestion that the network is suffering from a degree of lack of maintenance and that there is a disparity between the ambitions of the modelling programme with its Modflow6-driven shift to multi-layer conceptualization and a largely open-hole, single-layer monitoring installation.