River Catchment Boundaries for Scotland Based on SEPA and WFD Data, 2023

Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) catchment boundaries for Scotland, derived from hydrological sections and aligned with the Water Framework Directive. This dataset provides complete coverage of WFD waterbodies within Scotland, while representing England and Wales as a single area. Two coordinate reference system versions are available: WGS84 and British National Grid.

Use Cases

• Delineate hydrological units for environmental impact assessments based on the derived catchment boundaries.
• Map waterbody compliance under the Water Framework Directive based on the complete WFD coverage.
• Integrate Scottish river catchment data with other regional datasets based on the WGS84 coordinate system.
• Analyze spatial relationships between catchments and land use based on the geospatial boundary data.

Strengths

• Boundaries are derived from official hydrological sections and have almost identical alignment with existing Fish Health Inspectorate catchments.
• Provides complete coverage of all waterbodies under the Water Framework Directive for Scotland.
• Available in two standard coordinate reference systems (WGS84 and British National Grid) for different analytical needs.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Geographic coverage is limited to Scotland; England and Wales are represented only as a single combined area.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service, derived from SEPA and Water Framework Directive data.

Collection Method

Derived from the dataset 'Hydrological sections for England, Scotland and Wales with associated river catchment 2023'.

Time Range

2023

Freshness

2023

Geography

Scotland