National Tide Gauge Network Support & Maintenance 2025 - 2030

The Environment Agency owns and maintains 42 ‘Class A’ strategic tide gauges, distributed around the UK coastline on behalf of the UK Coastal Flood Forecasting partnership. These are commonly referred to as the UKCFF tide gauges or UK National Tide Gauge Network (UKTGN). The network currently consists of 21 sites in England, 10 in Scotland, 7 in Wales, 2 in Northern Ireland, 1 in Jersey and 1 in the Isle of Man. The Environment Agency is responsible for and manages all gauges in the network. Use of the data is not restricted to the operating authority boundary in which a gauge is located, for example both the Environment Agency (England) and Natural Resources Wales (Wales) use the Liverpool tide gauge data in delivering their forecasting services.<br/><br/>These tide gauges are of critical importance in providing flood forecasting, warning, modelling, mapping and operational activities. The primary use of the network is to support the operational flood forecasting activities of the UK Flood Forecasting Authorities. The gauges are used to:<br/>- Provide a strategic overview of real time coastal conditions around the UK.<br/>- Track the progress of coastal surge around the UK waters.<br/>- Develop and calibrate the coastal surge model hosted by the Met Office. <br/>- Produce high quality tide tables for key strategic locations in the UK for flood forecasting.<br/>- Provide high quality archive data sets for use in coastal flood modelling and mapping applications and modelling of extreme sea levels.<br/><br/>The data are also used by academics and researchers for a variety of scientific uses such as monitoring mean sea level and sea level rise. Gauges at Newlyn, Stornoway and Lerwick form part of the Core GLOSS (Global Sea Level Observing System) network www.gloss-sealevel.org ↗ and are therefore of international significance. A further four gauges at Aberdeen, North Shields, Sheerness and Liverpool have been identified as key long-term trend sites for monitoring mean sea level.<br/><br/>The key requirements of this contract in relation to the UK National Tide Gauge Network are;<br/>- Maintenance of 42 tide gauges to ensure the measuring performance of the gauge is compliant with the standards set in section 3<br/>- Resolution of faults with the tide gauge measuring equipment and telemetry outstation to the standards set out in section 3<br/>- Geodetic survey and levelling at sites to ensure datum control to the standards set out in section 3<br/>- Engagement and communication with EA contract manager and EA Instruments and Systems team, and wider teams as necessary<br/>- Liaison with the contractor responsible for the QA and archiving of the UKTGN data, currently British Oceanographic Data Centre.<br/>- Liaison with landowners where our tide gauges are located to ensure continued access is retained for maintenance and repair works<br/>- Adhering to the relevant Health and Safety and CDM regulations 2015 in the maintenance of the tide gauges.