Prior to the Water Act of 1973, water management throughout England and Wales was carried out in a hyper-local manner. From 1973, numerous smaller water authorities were grouped into 10 regional bodies. Southern Water was responsible for an area from the Thames Estuary around to the Isle of Wight.

When the major water authorities were privatised in 1989, responsibility for regulating the aquatic environment passed to the National Rivers Authority (NRA), which was subsumed into the Environment Agency in 1996.

Aerial survey photography has been vital to all these bodies to support their work. Southern Water, the NRA and the Environment Agency all commissioned or acquired numerous aerial photographs for the purposes of monitoring and analysis.

Today, the Environment Agency is responsible for regulating industry and waste, water quality, fisheries, navigation, conservation, and ecology. It also has responsibility for managing major flood risk from main rivers, reservoirs, and the sea.