The UK National Tide Gauge Network was set up as a result of severe flooding along the east coast of England in 1953.
It forms part of the UK Coastal Flood Forecasting (UKCFF) service. UKCFF is a partnership formed by the Environment Agency (EA), Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) Department for Agriculture and Rivers Agency Northern Ireland (RANI) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW). Through the partnership, the authorities commission and deliver the capabilities in monitoring and forecasting of coastal conditions that underpin coastal flood forecasting and flood risk modelling throughout the UK.
The network includes 43 gauges, most of which are related through the national levelling network to Ordnance Datum Newlyn. The whole network is owned by the Environment Agency who operates the network on behalf of the UKCFF partners. Data are collected, processed and archived centrally to provide long time series of reliable and accurate sea levels.
The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) has special responsibility for the quality control of sea level data from the network. Daily checks are kept on the performance of the gauges and the data are downloaded weekly. These are then routinely processed and quality controlled prior to being made available for scientific use.