Water Framework Directive Coastal Waterbodies for Cycle 1 (2008-2013)

Water Framework Directive (WFD) Coastal Waterbodies is a polygon Shapefile dataset defining coastal water bodies for environmental monitoring. The dataset covers the first implementation cycle from 2008 to 2013 and is attributed with a unique identifier for linking to other WFD data sources. It is published by the Government Digital Service under the OGL-UK-3.0 license.

Use Cases

• Assessing coastal water quality status based on linked classification data mentioned in the description
• Analyzing environmental risk for coastal zones based on linked risk data mentioned in the description
• Mapping and managing coastal water bodies for regulatory reporting based on the geospatial polygon format
• Integrating physical characteristics data for coastal areas using the unique EA_WB_ID identifier

Strengths

• Includes a unique identifier (EA_WB_ID) enabling direct linkage to other WFD data sources
• Covers a defined regulatory period (Cycle 1: 2008-2013)
• Published by a government organization (Government Digital Service) under an open license (OGL-UK-3.0)

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Collated as defined for the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.

Time Range

2008 - 2013

Freshness

Covers historical cycle 2008-2013; equivalent data for Cycle 2 exists separately.

Geography

Coastal waters within the jurisdiction of the reporting EU member states.