What is The Water table.
Put simply, its the point beneath the surface of the ground at which natural ground water is found. It is one of the factors considered by mortgage lenders and a important factor in land drainage calculations and Building regulations / Planning permission.
The level of the Water table rises and falls slightly during the seasons, normally being at its highest in Spring time.
This link to the Open university gives a lot more information about the Water Table.
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=398860§ion=1.3 (copy and paste it into your search bar)
Finding and getting information about the depth of local water tables.
Getting information isn't easy. Water boards are useless, Councils next to useless but the Environment Agency are fairly helpful, they have boreholes throughout the country which they monitor and if your garden or proposed building plot is near to one of them can supply data. The water table does not vary widely over a small area so the data could be useful.
There isn't any water table depth data available on the Environment Agency website. If you require data for a specific area, send any request, including exactly what data you require and for where (full address) to enquiries@environment-agency gov.uk
Local Knowledge is probably you best bet, ask neighbours on all four sides, local building inspectors, local excavators and off course if you are purchasing a plot of soggy land ask your surveyor.
If it's only you with a serious waterlogged garden problem while neighboring gardens are dry, the problem is not with the water table but is due to runoff from surface water and if a cluster of neighbouring gardens that have always been well drained suddenly become waterlogged, the problem again is unlikely to be with the water table. There are more and more reports of
neighbourhoods in which the gardens had been dry for years suddenly developing surface water drainage problems. nothing to do with rising water tables but major excavation work nearby, diverting surface water.
Related articles on my site. Garden drainage systems Drainage sumps and pumps lawn and garden drainage
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