2008 River Phytobenthos Health Classification with Confidence Scores

Survey results from 2007 show the health of phytobenthos algae in English rivers, expressed against Water Framework Directive status classes. The dataset includes statistical information on the confidence that results have been correctly assigned to each status class. It was created by the Environment Agency and the assessment method has since been improved.

Use Cases

• Assess river water quality status based on phytobenthos health metrics.
• Analyze the confidence and uncertainty associated with environmental classification results.
• Study historical baseline conditions for English rivers under the Water Framework Directive.
• Compare updated assessment methodologies against the 2007-2008 baseline.

Strengths

• Includes statistical confidence scores for each status classification, accounting for natural measurement error.
• Covers a national selection of English rivers, providing a broad geographic scope.
• Explicitly states the data is from 2007 surveys for the 2008 River Cycle 1 assessment.

Limitations

• The assessment method has since been improved, meaning the classification approach is outdated.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency

Collection Method

Field surveys and subsequent analysis against Water Framework Directive status classes.

Time Range

2007

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-06 07:09:27.783826; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England