WFD Cycle 2 ecological water body classification
Summary
Ecological status classifications can be composed of up to five different assessments:
- An assessment of status indicated by a biological quality element such as fish, invertebrates or algae.
- An assessment of compliance with environmental standards for supporting physico-chemical conditions, such as dissolved oxygen, phosphorus or ammonia.
- An assessment of compliance with environmental standards for concentrations of specific pollutants, such as zinc, cypermethrin or arsenic And, in determining high status only:
- A series of tests to make sure that hydromorphology is largely undisturbed
- An assessment of the presence of invasive species. Ecological status is recorded as high, good, moderate, poor or bad. ‘High’ represents ‘largely undisturbed conditions’. Other classes show increasing deviation from undisturbed or reference conditions. Ecological status is determined by the worst scoring element (one-out-all-out approach).
Categories
Keywords
Use limitation statement
There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the licence identified.
Licence
Open Government LicenceAttribution statement
© Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015. All rights reserved.
Technical information
Update frequency
annually
Lineage
The Water Framework Directive classification system is risk based and focuses on where there is likely to be a problem. It uses a principle known as "one out, all out", which means the poorest individual results drive the overall classification for a water body. It reports on over 30 quality elements, grouped into ecological status and chemical status. Ecological status includes physico-chem (e.g. nutrients, pH, dissolved oxygen, ammonia) , biological elements (e.g. phytoplankton, macroalgae, fish, invertebrates) , specific pollutants (e.g. metals and compounds, organic compounds) , hydromorphology (e.g. depth, width, flow, structure). Chemical status is assessed using priority substances, priority hazardous substances and other pollutants that present a significant risk to the water environment.
Spatial information
Coordinate reference system
http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/27700Geographic extent
- Latitude from: 49.943 to 55.816
- Longitude from: -6.236 to 2.072
Metadata information
Language
English
Metadata identifier
9fd716c2-8346-4dd9-a7f7-3ec59d96e192
Published by
Environment Agency
Contact publisher
Defra Data Services ForumDataset reference dates
Creation date
09 December 2015
Revision date
N/A
Publication date
N/A
Period
- From: 02 December 2015
Search
Data and Supporting Information
Data services and download by area of interest | Link | Action |
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Full downloads and supporting documentation | Format | Action |
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WFD_SW_Classification_Status_and_Objectives_Cycle2_v3.xlsx | XLSX | Download |