WFD River Waterbody Catchment Classifications (2019)

WFD River Water Body Catchments Cycle 2 Classification 2019 is an alternate version of ‘WFD River Waterbody Catchments Cycle 2’ with the addition of 2019 classification data and additional user attribution including Catchment Partnership codes. The geometry has been simplified to improve user experience, so the ‘WFD River Waterbody Catchments Cycle 2’ remains the highest definition version of the river catchments which was used within the WFD. This is a polygon dataset as defined for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. Catchments are defined as an area of land from which all surface run-off flows through a series of streams, rivers and, possibly, lakes to a particular point in the water course such as a river confluence. Since rivers are attributed with a unique water body identifier 'WB_ID' this dataset can be linked directly to the WFD river water body to which it relates. This dataset only contains the catchment shapes for river water bodies reported under the WFD. It does not include catchments for the small coastal streams and pieces of land that drain to coastal and estuarine waters without passing through a defined river water body. Find out more at data.gov.uk.