WFD Cycle 2: Macroalgae Ecological Quality Classifications for Coastal Waters

Classification data for the Macroalgae biological element in transitional and coastal water bodies under the Water Framework Directive. Up to two assessment tools each for transitional and coastal waters produce Ecological Quality Ratio (EQR) scores, which are used to assign a final classification of High, Good, Moderate, Poor, or Bad. The dataset is a subset of the "WFD Classification Status Cycle 2" and is attributed to the Environment Agency.

Use Cases

• Assessing the ecological status of transitional water bodies based on Opportunistic Macroalgae and Fucoid Extent metrics.
• Evaluating the health of coastal water bodies based on Opportunistic Macroalgae and Rockshore Macroalgae metrics.
• Training models to predict water body classifications from observed metric scores and reference conditions.
• Analyzing spatial or temporal trends in macroalgae-based water quality classifications.

Strengths

• Data is structured for regulatory reporting under the EU Water Framework Directive.
• Classification results are derived from specific, named assessment tools (e.g., Opportunistic Macroalgae).
• Provides a standardized five-tier classification (High, Good, Moderate, Poor, Bad) for comparison.

Limitations

• Row count is 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, provided via the Government Digital Service on the eu_open_data platform.

Collection Method

Likely contains aggregated results from field assessments and tool calculations comparing observed conditions to reference conditions.

Geography

Transitional and coastal water bodies, likely within the jurisdiction of the reporting agency (e.g., England).