River Catchment Boundaries for England and Wales in British National Grid 2023

Catchment boundaries for rivers in England and Wales are derived from hydrological sections and align with existing Fish Health Inspectorate catchments. The dataset provides complete coverage of waterbodies under the Water Framework Directive for England and Wales. It is published by the Government Digital Service and is available in a British National Grid projected coordinate system.

Use Cases

• Delineate watersheds for environmental impact assessments based on the described catchment boundaries.
• Map waterbody compliance with the Water Framework Directive based on the complete coverage mentioned.
• Analyze hydrological connectivity between river sections based on the derived boundaries from hydrological sections.

Strengths

• Boundaries are derived from hydrological sections and align closely with established Fish Health Inspectorate catchments.
• Provides complete coverage of Water Framework Directive waterbodies for England and Wales.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Scotland is represented as a single area, not detailed catchments.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Derived from hydrological sections dataset.

Time Range

2023

Geography

England and Wales