Bathing Waters Monitoring Locations and Classifications in England, 1988-Present

Annual water samples collected by the Environment Agency from May to September at designated bathing sites in England from 1988 to present. This shapefile shows the approximate locations of monitoring sites and their compliance or classification results, which are updated twice a year. The data is intended to ensure coastal and inland waters are safe and clean for swimming and other activities.

Use Cases

• Mapping bathing water quality compliance based on geospatial location data
• Analyzing long-term trends in water safety based on annual classifications from 1988 onward
• Identifying safe swimming locations based on Environment Agency monitoring results
• Assessing the impact of tides on coastal water monitoring based on transect location descriptions

Strengths

• Long-term temporal coverage from 1988 to present
• Data is updated twice a year for revised assessments
• Spatial data includes both coastal and inland bathing water sites

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• For coastal waters, monitoring locations vary with tides, which may affect precise spatial analysis

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency

Collection Method

Water samples collected and analyzed annually from May to September.

Time Range

1988 to present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-06 07:09:05.141794; updated twice a year.

Geography

England (coastal and inland bathing waters)