Coastal and Estuarine (Transitional) Waters (Water Framework Directive (WFD)) Classification

What is it:

Scotland has 457 coastal water bodies and 50 transitional water bodies. Waters are classfied into High, Good, Moderate, Poor and Bad Status.

The environmental standards and methods used to produce the 2013 classification differ from those used from 2007-2012. The 2013 report summarises the differences and their implications.

Updated graphs (as found in Scotland’s Marine Atlas) can be accessed in the ‘Data Sources’ tab at the bottom of the page through the Scotland's Environment interactive tool. See 'Current classification' and 'Historical classification' tabs for breakdown by Scottish Marine Region.

Links to Scotland's Marine Atlas:

Chapter 3: Water Framework Directive Classification of Transitional and Coastal Waters

Data originators:

Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)

This information page is part of the theme:

Water Framework Directive (WFD)

More Information:

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000/60/EC) established a new legal framework for the protection, improvement and sustainable use of rivers, lochs, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater across Europe in order to:

prevent deterioration and enhance the status of aquatic ecosystems, including coastal waters (out to 3 nautical miles from the coast in Scotland)
promote sustainable water use
reduce pollution, and
contribute to the mitigation of floods and droughts.

Scotland’s Environment web site has detailed results and graphs on WFD Water Body Classification where the user can select particular areas e.g. ‘coastal only’, ‘estuaries only’ or ‘estuaries and coastal’ to see graphs of results over the last few years. See 'Interactive WFD Water Body Classification results (maps and graphs)' link below on 'Data Sources' tab below. The 'Current classification' and 'Historical classification' tabs have breakdown by Scottish Marine Region. The visualisation tool will graph results.

This page was last modified on :

Monday, December 5, 2022 - 11:59

Map Type	Click title for metadata and licence information	View Map
Map Layers (NMPi)	Water Classification - Coastal Waters (SEPA WMS)	Access this map on NMPi
Map Layers (NMPi)	Water Classification - Estuaries or Transitional Waters (SEPA WMS)	Access this map on NMPi
Map Layers (NMPi)	Water Classification - Rivers (SEPA WMS)	Access this map on NMPi

Type	Link Title	External Link
Web link	Interactive Water Classification Hub - results (maps and graphs) - Scotland's Environment - visualisation tool	www.sepa.org.uk
Web link	SEPA - water body classification hub	www.sepa.org.uk

Type	Title	External link
Web link	SEPA - water body classification	www.sepa.org.uk
Web link	Water Framework Directive(WFD) (2000/60/EC)	ec.europa.eu
Datasets	WFD Water Bodies Data Sheets	apps.sepa.org.uk