Data products

Monitoring data products

The Department of Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat), one of the NODC partners, is responsible for  National Monitoring Programmes for marine and fresh waters via monitoring networks and repeated surveys in Dutch waters. Information of the water quality is collected for maintenance and evaluation of the national policy and as part of international agreements. Physical oceanography parameters are monitored as part of the protection against the sea, to support various activities, such as harbour operations, shipping, offshore industry, and together with chemical, biological and geological monitoring for environmental and coastal management. Rijkswaterstaat operates several dedicated websites, that give overview and access to data products based upon these monitoring data.

http://www.getij.nl/  gives tidal predictions for Dutch gauges on the North Sea, the adjacent estuaries and the tidal rivers. Most gauges included belong to the National Water Level Measuring Program of Rijkswaterstaat. Also, a few gauges of the Port of Rotterdam for  the harbour area of Rotterdam have been included. A few locations in Zeeland are regional gauges in the ZEGE network.



This site  gives water normal values for discharges and water levels. All normals are specific to a location. Different normals are defined for averages and return levels: values that, with a certain frequency, are either exceeded or not reached. For the normals of water levels in tidal areas a differentiation is made between uninfluenced tidal areas: the areas where the water levels are not noticeably influenced by (variations in) discharge :the coast (incl. the measuring station Hoek van Holland), the North Sea, the Wadden Sea, the Westerschelde, the Oosterschelde basin and the Eems/Dollard estuary; and tidal rivers: the areas that are influenced by both the tides and discharges from the Rhine and the Meuse, and where discharge through the Haringvliet sluices during low water is also important. In addition, the highest and lowest discharge and water-level readings have been recorded, even though these are not really normals.


http://www.fytoplankton.nl/ Phytoplankton (algae) is the source of food for all kinds of aquatic organisms and so forms the base of the food chain. The concentration and species of these tiny floating autotrophic particles (algae) help to determine the ecological quality of both fresh and salt waters. For water management it is thus very important to monitor the phytoplankton in surface waters regularly. The website offers interactive and current data from six locations around the Dutch coast. The results of phytoplankton measurements that are determined by means of flow cytometry (a rapid counting technique, operated by lasers), are available within about three days of the samples being taken. The measurements at these sites are taken with a EurOPA n.s. flow cytometer.

www.waterstat.nl gives various statistics which are representative for a location or an area in the Dutch waters in a certain year. The input for the statistics is provided by the data, collected via the National Monitoring Programmes. This site is only available in Dutch.




NODC GIS Viewer and Oil Spill Simulation Demonstrator

 An NODC GIS Viewer application has been set up, that combines topographic and bathymetric charts from Rijkswaterstaat and TNO by means of WMS services. The NODC GIS viewer is based upon the Minnesota Map Server (MMS).  The viewer also includes a WMS layer for oil & gas licences and infrastructure (pipelines, platforms) at the Netherlands part of the Continental Shelf. The NODC GIS viewer has been extended with a demonstrator for an ‘oilspill’ simulation-application based upon the Deltares kernel ‘Delft3D-Part’ with the so-called ZuNo grid (Southern Northsea) as area.

North Sea Atlas

The North Sea Atlas (www.noordzeeatlas.nl) contains maps with data which are related to the water system, use, policy and management of the Dutch part of the North Sea. The information has been depicted on maps of the North Sea, the Dutch Continental Shelf (NCS) or of the Dutch coastal area, depending on the nature of the subject or the information offered. The North Sea Atlas has been manufactured for the North Sea Interdepartmental Consultation Directorate (IDON), a cooperative board of 10 ministries of the Netherlands.

NL Oil and Gas Portal

This portal (www.nlog.nl) is managed by TNO, one of the partners of NODC, at the request of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs to provide information about oil and gas exploration and production in the Netherlands and the Dutch sector of the North Sea continental shelf. It gives interactive maps and details about licenses, boreholes, seismic surveys, platforms and pipelines and related information.