GovData Docs

Flood Monitoring API

Near-real-time Environment Agency station metadata and observations for alerting, mapping, and operational dashboards.

Flood stations

GET /v1/environment/flood/stations lists stations; GET /v1/environment/flood/stations/:station_reference returns one station and its measures.

GET /v1/environment/flood/stations 
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" "https://api.govdata.dev/v1/environment/flood/stations?river=Dikler"
{"data":[{"station_reference":"1029TH","label":"Bourton Dickler","river":"River Dikler","town":"Little Rissington","catchment":"Cotswolds","opened_on":"1994-01-01","latitude":51.874767,"longitude":-1.740083,"status":"active","parameters":["level"]}],"meta":{"api_version":"v1","licence":"Open Government Licence v3.0","source":"Environment Agency","source_url":"https://environment.data.gov.uk/flood-monitoring/doc/reference","attribution":"this uses Environment Agency flood and river level data from the real-time data API (Beta)","coverage":"England","dataset_last_updated_at":"2026-08-21T07:42:10.000Z","retention_days":7},"pagination":{"total":1,"page":1,"per_page":1,"total_pages":1}}

Latest readings

GET /v1/environment/flood/readings/latest returns the publisher's per-measure latest snapshot. Optional station_reference, parameter, page, and per_page filters support status panels and monitoring.

GET /v1/environment/flood/readings/latest 
{"data":[{"station_reference":"1029TH","measure_id":"1029TH-level-downstage-i-15_min-mASD","parameter":"level","qualifier":"Downstream Stage","unit":"mASD","period_seconds":900,"observed_at":"2026-08-21T07:15:00Z","value":-0.383}],"meta":{"api_version":"v1","licence":"Open Government Licence v3.0","source":"Environment Agency","source_url":"https://environment.data.gov.uk/flood-monitoring/doc/reference","attribution":"this uses Environment Agency flood and river level data from the real-time data API (Beta)","coverage":"England","dataset_last_updated_at":"2026-08-21T07:42:10.000Z","retention_days":7},"pagination":{"total":2,"page":1,"per_page":1,"total_pages":2}}

Station history

GET /v1/environment/flood/stations/:station_reference/readings accepts optional ISO 8601 from/to (default 24 hours; maximum seven days), parameter, page, and per_page. Use it for short trend charts.

GET /v1/environment/flood/stations/:station_reference/readings 
{"data":[{"station_reference":"1029TH","measure_id":"1029TH-level-stage-i-15_min-mASD","parameter":"level","qualifier":"Stage","unit":"mASD","period_seconds":900,"observed_at":"2026-08-21T07:15:00Z","value":0.072}],"meta":{"api_version":"v1","licence":"Open Government Licence v3.0","source":"Environment Agency","source_url":"https://environment.data.gov.uk/flood-monitoring/doc/reference","attribution":"this uses Environment Agency flood and river level data from the real-time data API (Beta)","coverage":"England","dataset_last_updated_at":"2026-08-21T07:42:10.000Z","retention_days":7},"pagination":{"total":2,"page":1,"per_page":1,"total_pages":2}}

Errors

400 {"error":{"code":"bad_request","message":"param is missing or the value is empty: lat","documentation_url":"https://docs.govdata.dev/errors/bad_request"}}
404 {"error":{"code":"not_found","message":"Resource not found","documentation_url":"https://docs.govdata.dev/errors/not_found"}}
422 {"error":{"code":"unprocessable_entity","message":"range must be positive and no longer than 7 days","documentation_url":"https://docs.govdata.dev/errors/unprocessable_entity"}}

Data notes

Coverage is Environment Agency monitoring in England. EA says readings are normally updated every 15 minutes; GovData follows the reference page's “Note on crawling”, polls the global latest snapshot five minutes after each quarter-hour, and retains only seven days of imported history. Required attribution: “this uses Environment Agency flood and river level data from the real-time data API (Beta)”. Source: EA real-time flood-monitoring API, Open Government Licence v3.0, no registration required. Station histories vary; instruments can be offline, delayed, revised, or report negative datum-relative values. Examples above were captured verbatim from a local API run against the live EA import on 21 August 2026 and will be re-captured from production after load.