Objectives data for England

The objective is the planned status of a water body that must be achieved or maintained. There are two different status objectives for each water body. For surface waters these are ecological status or potential objective and chemical status objective; for groundwater these are quantitative status objective and chemical status objectives. The water body objectives are derived from the objectives for the relevant individual elements within the water body.

Find out more information on objectives in the Current condition and environmental objectives document.

To find out more about objective setting, see the current condition and environmental objectives document. An explanation of terms is in the glossary. You can see the objectives data on the river basin management plan map viewer.

Ecological status or potential objectives for surface water bodies

Table summarises the ecological status and ecological potential objectives set for water bodies in the river basin management plan. Each water body is only counted once in this table. Each water body objective consists of a target status and a date when it was, or is expected to be, met.

StatusBadPoorModerateGoodHighTotal
By 2015135469773711502
By 2021022791910292
By 2027010126266202798
By 203300124025
By 203900228030
By 2060000404
Total1386905364614651

2735 of the "by 2027" objectives are low confidence

Chemical status objectives for surface water bodies

Including those with less stringent objectives and extended deadlines

StatusFailGoodTotal
By 2063046484648
Total046484648

0 of the "by 2027" objectives are low confidence

Quantitative status objectives for groundwater

Including those with less stringent objectives and extended deadlines

StatusPoor
GoodTotal
By 201526181207
By 202103131
By 202703232
By 2040011
Total26245271

25 of the "by 2027" objectives are low confidence

Chemical status objectives for groundwater

Including those with less stringent objectives and extended deadlines

StatusPoor
GoodTotal
By 201529122151
By 202102121
By 202707878
By 2033011
By 2040044
By 2050077
By 2060099
Total29242271

78 of the "by 2027" objectives are low confidence