Sensitive Areas for Nitrates: UK Rivers Under Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive

A shapefile showing the extent of rivers designated as nitrate-sensitive areas under the UK's Urban Wastewater Treatment regulations. The dataset is an Approval for Access product (AfA251) from the Environment Agency, with copyright held in 2015. It is published by the Government Digital Service on the EU open data platform.

Use Cases

• Map regulatory boundaries for water quality management based on the sensitive area designations.
• Analyze spatial relationships between nitrate pollution and drinking water sources based on the directive's criteria.
• Support environmental impact assessments for wastewater treatment infrastructure near designated rivers.

Strengths

• Data is tied to specific EU and UK legislation (Directive 91/271/EEC, UK regulations 1994), providing a legal context.
• Geospatial format (shapefile) allows for direct mapping and GIS integration.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency (UK), published by Government Digital Service.

Collection Method

Designation under regulatory framework, likely from monitoring and assessment.

Time Range

null

Freshness

null

Geography

United Kingdom (rivers designated as sensitive areas).