Classifications data for South West River Basin District

Classification data is a method for distinguishing the environmental condition or "status" of water bodies and putting them into one category or another.

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

To find out more about classifications, see the current condition and environmental objectives document. An explanation of terms is in the glossary.

You can see the water body and classification data on the river basin management plan map viewer.

Number of water bodies

The number of water bodies in the river basin district. It shows whether these are natural, artificial (such as canals and reservoirs) or have been modified ('heavily modified') for particular uses.

Water body categoriesNaturalArtificialHeavily modifiedTotal
River, canals and surface water transfers5202150591
Lake9173056
Coastal210223
Estuarine1001323
Groundwater420042
Total6023895735

Ecological status for surface waters

Table summarises the current ecological status of surface water bodies. Water bodies are classified as being at high, good, moderate, poor or bad ecological status or potential.

Ecological status or potentialBadPoorModerateGoodHighTotal
Number of water bodies101044311460691
Number of water body elements3523775787342446146

Chemical status for surface waters

Table summarises the current chemical status of water bodies. These are classified as being at good or fail.

Chemical statusFailGoodTotal
Number of water bodies6910691
Number of water body elements149679479443

Why do all water bodies have a chemical status of fail?

Quantitative status for groundwater

Table summarises the quantitative status of groundwater water bodies. These are classified as being at good or poor.

Quantitative statusPoorGoodTotal
Number of water bodies33942
Number of water body elements3165168

Chemical status for groundwater

Table summarises the chemical status of groundwater water bodies. These are classified as being at good or poor.

Chemical statusPoorGoodTotal
Number of water bodies291342
Number of water body elements45165210

Historic classification data

Data is only summarised on these pages for the latest cycle. This is due to lack of comparability because of changes in water bodies and classification approaches. Historic data for previous cycles, as published, is available from the following downloads:

Historic classifications data (XLSX)