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Water level API for German cities (PEGELONLINE)

Current water levels on federal waterways per city through a free, key-free REST API. The source is PEGELONLINE of the German Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration, complemented by the official flood situations of the states.

What data you get

Per city the endpoint returns the nearest gauging station with the name of the gauge, the body of water, the current reading and unit as well as the time of measurement. A second endpoint provides the official flood warnings of the state flood centres.

  • Name of the gauging station
  • Body of water
  • Water level
  • Unit (usually centimetres)
  • Time of measurement

Source: PEGELONLINE, German Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV). License: DL-DE Zero 2.0. Source, license URL and timestamp are included in every API response in the meta and attribution block.

How to fetch it

A simple GET request, no key and no sign-up:

curl https://infranode.dev/api/v1/cities/koeln/water-level

For another city, just put the slug from the cities list into the path.

No key, no sign-up, free.

Open quickstart Endpoint reference

Covered cities

80 cities with a gauging station within reach. Cities without a federal waterway nearby honestly report that no data is available.

Currently available for 80 cities. The exact per-city status is on the coverage and status page, the full list of cities on the cities overview.

Straight to the largest covered cities: Berlin , Hamburg , Köln , Frankfurt am Main , Stuttgart , Düsseldorf , Leipzig , Dortmund , Essen , Bremen .

Endpoint reference

All parameters, fields and response examples are in the API reference for this endpoint. InfraNode is also available as an MCP server for AI assistants.

Frequently asked questions

How current are the water levels?
PEGELONLINE updates every quarter of an hour. Every response carries the time of measurement, so the age of the value is always visible.
Is the value a height above sea level?
No. The water level is the height above the gauge datum of the respective station, usually in centimetres. Values from different gauges are therefore not directly comparable.
Do I also get flood warnings?
Yes, through a separate endpoint. It provides the official situations of the state flood centres with their timestamp, kept apart from the pure readings.
Why is my city missing?
Because there is no gauging station of a federal waterway within reach. Inland cities without a major river therefore have no values, and the response says so openly.

More data types