Invitation to Tender for National Tide Gauge Network Maintenance

The Environment Agency on behalf of the UK Coastal Flood Forecasting is seeking to procure a maintenance contract for the National Tide Gauge Network. There are 43 'Class A' tide gauges around the UK coastline. These tide gauges are owned by the Environment Agency and operated on behalf of the UKCFF (UK Coastal Flood Forecasting) partnership. Class A gauges conform to the highest standards of sea level monitoring as defined by the Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) for the Global Sea Level Observing programme (GLOSS). 3 of the gauges from the UKCFF network are a formal part of the Global Core Network of sea level observations used in monitoring global sea level changes.

The observations are used in real time flood forecasting to check actual sea levels against forecast as tides pass around the UK. The gauges are maintained to the highest standards and so the quality of the real time observation is of known accuracy. The observation record from the gauges provides one of the critical datasets underpinning all of coastal flood risk across the UK as it provides the source of sea level information for flood risk mapping studies and design levels for coastal flood defences.

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