Water Framework Directive (WFD) River, Canal, and Surface Water Transfer Water Bodies Cycle 3 Classification 2022 (Simplified)

This is a polyline dataset showing Water Framework Directive (WFD) River, Canal, and Surface Water Transfer Water Bodies. River centrelines represent the official river water body definition for the WFD.

This dataset provides attribution relating to the 2022 classification results, as well as other relevant information and data about each river, canal, and surface water transfer water body.

The data identifies the river water bodies managed under the WFD, and any related programmes. This includes canals and surface water transfers which are reported to Europe as artificial rivers. In these scenarios, the field in the dataset called 'water_body_type' has a value of either 'Surface Water Transfer', or 'Canal'. These water bodies are represented by their centreline, and can be linked to other WFD data using the value in the 'water_body_id' field.

The river centrelines are defined using geometry taken from the EA Detailed River Network, which has Ordnance Survey rights. There are two layer files associated with this dataset. There is a layer file called Simplified_WFD_River_Canal_and_SWT_Water_Bodies_Cycle_3_Classification_2022_Chemical_Class.lyrx, and a layer file called Simplified_WFD_River_Canal_and_SWT_Water_Bodies_Cycle_3_Classification_2022_Ecological_Class.lyrx. The layer files display the chemical class, and the ecological class or potential for each river, canal, and surface water transfer water body.

The geometry of this dataset has been simplified to allow for faster web mapping services. The full resolution of this dataset is called WFD River, Canal, and Surface Water Transfer Water Bodies Cycle 3 Classification 2022 (Full Resolution). Please note that there are limitations with the shapefile format of the data. The data applies to Cycle 3 of the WFD.