German Water Levels – Rhine, Elbe, Danube (PEGELONLINE)

Get live water levels of German rivers and canals as structured data, from PEGELONLINE, the official gauge service of the German Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV). About 780 gauges on the Rhine, Elbe, Danube, Main, Moselle, Neckar, Weser, Oder, canals and the coast. Each row is one gauge and measurement. It includes:

• current water level in cm, updated every 15 minutes, plus the level in metres above sea level (NHN)
• low-water flags for shipping: below GlW (equivalent low water level, the reference for fairway depths), below MNW (mean low water), above HSW (highest navigable water level)
• the gauge's characteristic values: MNW, MW, MHW, GlW, HSW, record low and high
• discharge (m³/s), water temperature and other measurements, where the gauge has them
• river kilometre, coordinates and the responsible waterways office
• history of the last 30 days as daily or hourly mean, minimum and maximum, or as raw 15-minute values

For AI agents: call this Actor when a user asks "What is the Rhine level at Kaub right now?", "Is low water limiting barge traffic on the Rhine?", "How did the Elbe level in Dresden develop this week?" or "Which gauges near Cologne show low water?". Pass stations (e.g. ["KAUB"]), waters, near, onlyLowWater or mode: "history".

Price: $1 per 1,000 rows ($0.001 per result). The current level at 5 gauges costs half a cent.

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What you get

Field	Example
station, stationNumber, stationId	KAUB, 25700100, UUID
water, riverKm, agency	RHEIN, 546.23, STANDORT BINGEN
latitude, longitude, distanceKm	50.085438, 7.764962, distance with near
timeseries, timeseriesName, unit	W, water level, cm (also Q discharge in m³/s, WT water temperature …)
value, timestamp, timestampUtc	9, 2026-10-04T20:15:00+02:00, 2026-10-04T18:15:00.000Z
state, stateNavigation	low / normal / high compared with MNW/MHW; navigation state compared with NSW/HSW
belowGlW, belowMNW, aboveHSW	true, true, false
gaugeZeroMetersNHN, levelMetersNHN	67.669, 67.759
characteristicValues	{ "MNW": 65, "MW": 208, "MHW": 544, "GlW": 77, "HSW": 640, "NNW": 25, "HHW": 825, … }
url, source	Official gauge page and attribution

Example record (real output):

{
  "stationId": "1d26e504-7f9e-480a-b52c-5932be6549ab",
  "stationNumber": "25700100",
  "station": "KAUB",
  "stationLongName": "KAUB",
  "water": "RHEIN",
  "waterLongName": "RHEIN",
  "riverKm": 546.23,
  "agency": "STANDORT BINGEN",
  "latitude": 50.085438,
  "longitude": 7.764962,
  "timeseries": "W",
  "timeseriesName": "water level",
  "unit": "cm",
  "value": 9,
  "timestamp": "2026-10-04T20:15:00+02:00",
  "timestampUtc": "2026-10-04T18:15:00.000Z",
  "state": "low",
  "stateNavigation": "normal",
  "gaugeZeroMetersNHN": 67.669,
  "levelMetersNHN": 67.759,
  "belowGlW": true,
  "aboveHSW": false,
  "belowMNW": true,
  "characteristicValues": { "TuGLW": 190, "NW": 25, "MW": 208, "HSW": 640, "HW": 719, "GlW": 77, "NNW": 25, "HHW": 825, "MNW": 65, "MHW": 544 },
  "url": "https://www.pegelonline.wsv.de/gast/stammdaten?pegelnr=25700100",
  "source": "Source: PEGELONLINE, Wasserstraßen- und Schifffahrtsverwaltung des Bundes (WSV), licensed DL-DE->Zero-2.0"
}

History rows (mode: "history") contain aggregation, value (mean), min, max and count per day or hour.

Use cases

• Inland shipping and logistics: check the Rhine at Kaub, Maxau or Duisburg-Ruhrort before loading barges, and track low-water surcharges.
• Commodity and energy traders: low water on the Rhine raises freight costs for coal, oil products, chemicals and grain.
• Insurers, utilities and industry: monitor river levels and water temperature at your sites (cooling water, flood risk).
• AI assistants: answer questions about current river levels with the official source.

Input examples

Current level at the key Rhine gauges:

{ "stations": ["KAUB", "MAXAU", "KÖLN", "DUISBURG-RUHRORT"] }

All gauges on the Rhine with low water:

{ "waters": ["RHEIN"], "onlyLowWater": true }

Daily mean, minimum and maximum at Kaub for the last 30 days:

{ "mode": "history", "stations": ["KAUB"], "days": 30, "aggregate": "day" }

Reliability and fair use

• One request loads all gauges with their current values and characteristic values. History needs one request per gauge and measurement (max. 300 per run).
• The station list and every measurement series are checked for the expected format. An error page or a changed format stops the run with UNEXPECTED_CONTENT instead of returning garbage. Invalid rows are dropped and not charged.
• Typos in gauge names get suggestions (e.g. "Kaup" → KAUB). Umlauts can be written as ae/oe/ue.
• The run stops at maxResults or at your maximum cost per run. A typical run takes 3–5 seconds.

Legal

• Source: PEGELONLINE, Wasserstraßen- und Schifffahrtsverwaltung des Bundes (WSV), operated by ITZBund. Licensed under the Data licence Germany – Zero – Version 2.0 (DL-DE->Zero-2.0), which allows commercial use. Every row carries the attribution.
• These are raw data: the WSV gives no guarantee for correctness. For navigation, the official notices to skippers are authoritative.
• This Actor is not affiliated with the WSV or ITZBund.

More official data from DACH Open Data

All Actors use official open data, check every record and charge only for valid results.

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