Bathing Waters Monitoring Locations

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The Environment Agency collects and analyses water samples each year from May to September, to ensure that designated bathing water sites on the coast and inland are safe and clean for swimming and other activities. The results of these samples are assessed in annual classifications. Bathing water locations, and samples & measurements are archived on the Environment Agency’s water quality archive WIMS. The compliance and classification results are held in bwdata.mdb which is managed by Statutory Assessment & Reporting in RAE. All the data is also available as linked open data via the linked data store or bathing water data explorer. The assessments used in the compliance from 1988 to 2014 were based on the standards as set in the directive 76/160/EEC. From 2015 onwards the assessments are based on the standards set in the directive 2006/7/EC. This shape file shows the approximate locations of our monitoring sites and the compliance or classification for each bathing water in England from 1988 to present. It is updated twice a year, to revise the inventory, and the assessment results. For coastal waters the specific locations of monitoring vary along a transect line with the changing of the tides.