WFD Surface Water Operational Catchments: Cycle 3 Polygons

Cycle 3 of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) provides a polygon dataset of Surface Water Operational Catchments for economic appraisal. These catchments group multiple WFD water bodies, including transitional and coastal waters, based on pressures and measures, though they may not be hydrologically precise. The dataset was created using hydrological models based on Environment Agency LiDAR data and the Detailed River Network.

Use Cases

• Grouping water bodies for economic appraisal based on pressures and measures.
• Analyzing surface water management units for regulatory reporting under the WFD.
• Integrating catchment data with separate datasets for groundwater and linear artificial waters.

Strengths

• Cross-platform presence on eu_open_data and uk_data signals established importance and use.
• Dataset is explicitly tied to a specific regulatory cycle (Cycle 3) of the Water Framework Directive.
• Creation method is specified: hydrological models based on EA LiDAR data and the Detailed River Network.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: no column names, row count, or license details are provided in any source.
• The shapefile format is noted to have limitations, and the data may not represent hydrologically correct catchments.
• One source lists a last updated date of 2026-04-07, which is a future date and creates a conflict regarding data freshness.

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency (UK), via Government Digital Service.

Collection Method

Created using hydrological models based on EA LiDAR data informed with the Detailed River Network.

Time Range

Cycle 3 of the Water Framework Directive.

Freshness

2026-04-07 14:36:53.520317 (Note: This is a future date, creating a conflict)

Geography

United Kingdom (implied by data creator and platforms).