A review of the Scottish rain-gauge network

A review of the rain-gauge network in Scotland was undertaken on behalf of the UK Met Office and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to evaluate the existing network against current user requirements for rainfall data, investigate the interaction between the rain-gauge and radar networks and to inform recommendations for improvements to the network and associated rainfall data. The review identified a diverse user requirement from core Met Office requirements for numerical weather prediction, rainfall radar adjustment and climatology, to a wide range of water-related applications including flood estimation, forecasting and warning, water quality, water resources, emergency planning, landslip prediction and a variety of amenity applications. Key findings of the review were a need for expansion of the gauge network in urban, remote and high-altitude areas and for radar adjustment/verification purposes. In addition to improved radar rainfall forecasts, such targeted network expansion would improve rainfall data availability and utility for the wider user community. Significant potential benefits to both the Met Office and SEPA were identified through the real-time sharing of data between organisations, with improved radar rainfall forecasts benefiting a range of applications, in particular flood warning.