Water Resource Abstraction Reliability (% of time)

The Environment Agency monitors water resource availability as part of the Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy. A technical assessment is carried out to determine the water available in each river catchment. This is compared to the Environmental Flow Indicator - minimum amount of water required to achieve healthy ecological status - in order to identify where resources demands from industry, agriculture or public water supply are compromising water quality and availability. Water abstraction resource reliability shows the amount of time that water is available for additional consumptive abstractions within the catchment (after all existing licences have been used at full capacity).