The WebSMURF System

Observed data: General Quality Assessment (GQA) data for river section 'Union Road to Eagle Lane, Tipton'

What is GQA data and what does it mean?

GQA stands for General Quality Assessment. The GQA grade is a measure of how clean the water is in the river.

• The GQA grade is shown as a letter of the alphabet.
• A GQA grade of A means that the quality of the water is very good. Sections of the river with this grade will be quite natural and probably full of fish.
• A GQA grade of F means that the water quality is bad. Sections of the river with this grade are very polluted and probably support very little wildlife.

Graph of General Quality Assessment (GQA) data

What's on the graph?

The graph shows how the General Quality Assessment (GQA) grade of this river section has changed over time.

• GQA grade is shown on the up and down (y) axis. A higher point on the graph represents better, cleaner water than a low point.
• Time is shown on the left to right (x) axis. Points to the left of the graph are from longer ago than points to the right, so reading the graph from left to right tells you how the river has changed as time has moved forward.

Table of General Quality Assessment (GQA) data

What's in the table?

The table shows how the General Quality Assessment (GQA) grade of this river section has changed over time.

• The table is arranged with early dates at the top and later dates near the bottom so reading down the table tells you how the river has changed as time has moved forward.
• The first column tells you the date of observation: This is the month and year that the GQA of this river section was measured.
• The second column tells you the grade: This is the GQA grade that was measured on that date.

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