Northern Ireland Estuarine Fish Community Surveys for EU Water Framework Directive

DAERA conducts annual fish surveys in seven Northern Ireland river estuaries. This data is collected primarily for mandatory reporting to the European Union's Water Framework Directive. The dataset is published by the Government Digital Service under an open license.

Use Cases

• Monitor long-term trends in estuarine fish populations based on annual survey data.
• Assess ecological status for EU Water Framework Directive compliance based on fish community metrics.
• Model the impact of environmental changes on specific estuarine ecosystems in Northern Ireland.
• Compare fish biodiversity across the seven surveyed river estuaries.

Strengths

• Data is collected for mandatory EU Water Framework Directive reporting, suggesting a standardized methodology.
• Surveys cover seven distinct river estuaries in Northern Ireland, providing geographic coverage.
• The dataset is published under the OGL-UK-3.0 license, permitting reuse.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and temporal coverage are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service (likely on behalf of DAERA - Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs).

Collection Method

Annual field surveys of fish communities.

Time Range

Annual, but specific years are unknown.

Freshness

Annual collection frequency is indicated, but the last update date is unknown.

Geography

Seven river estuaries in Northern Ireland.