Windermere - United Kingdom

UK ECN site. Windermere is in NW England in the English Lake District, an area of great natural beauty and a tourist destination since the 18th century. The dominant geological structure of the Lake District is a dome of Paleozoic rocks formed by uplift in the Tertiary producing a radial drainage pattern later enhanced during the Pleistocene glaciation, with major lakes occupying bedrock basins in steep-sided, flat-floored valleys. Windermere is the largest natural lake in England with a surface area of 14.8km2 and altitude of only 40m. The lake is divided by a shallow sill into two basins; North Basin (NB) (surface area c. 8km2, maximum depth 64m) and South Basin (SB) (surface area c. 6.7km2, maximum depth 42m). Windermere (ECN site (2o58'W 54o23'N)), has a catchment of 180km2 draining into the lake via two main rivers, several small tarns (lakes) and streams. The catchment is mainly uplands, grazed by sheep all year but also used intensively for recreational purposes. The valley villages are major tourist destinations with consequent increases in sewage input to the lake. Over the past 50 years levels of dissolved reactive phosphorus in the lake have more than doubled, reaching their highest levels in the 1980s. The effluent discharged into SB from the main sewage works is now P-stripped to reduce the nutrient loading to the lake. The lake is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a source of potable water, a major recreational facility and a specialised fishery (for charr, Salvelinus alpinus). The Freshwater Biological Association and latterly the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology have had a laboratory on the shore of Windermere for over 50 years resulting in a large body of scientific literature based on Lake District lakes.