WFD Transitional and Coastal Water Bodies Cycle 2 Classification 2019

WFD Transitional and Coastal Water Bodies Cycle 2 Classification 2019 is an alternate version of ‘WFD Transitional and Coastal Waterbodies Cycle 2’ with the addition of 2019 classification data and additional user attribution including Catchment Partnership codes. The geometry has been simplified to improve user experience. These are polygon datasets containing attributes that have been collated as defined for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). It comprises both the Transitional and the Coastal water bodies used for the WFD in Cycle 2 Article 2, clause 6 of the WFD defines Transitional water bodies as ‘…bodies of surface water in the vicinity of river mouths which are partly saline in character as a result of their proximity to coastal waters but are substantially influenced by freshwater flows’. These are also referred to as estuaries. Transitional water bodies were defined from Mean High Water boundaries, taken directly from OS 1:50K MeridianTM 2 and Environment Agency estuarine boundaries defined for the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD). Article 2, clause 7 of the WFD defines coastal water bodies as ‘…a surface water on the landward side of a line, every point of which is at a distance of one nautical mile on the seaward side from the nearest point of the baseline from which the breadth of territorial waters is measured, extending where appropriate up to the outer limit of transitional waters’. Coastal waters were defined by territorial waters 1 nautical mile from the Mean High Water coastline taken directly from OS 1:50K MeridianTM 2. The delineation between coastal and estuarine waters was delineated by the Environment Agency defined transitional water bodies. Water bodies are also split and assigned to River Basin Districts. These Transitional and Coastal water bodies have been simplified for fast display in this version of the dataset, so the higher resolution legal definition of these water bodies remains ‘WFD Transitional and Coastal Waterbodies Cycle 2’.