Alternate title

WFD GWB Status 07 - 12

Date (Creation)

2010-01-01T00:00:00

Date (Publication)

2010-01-01T00:00:00

Date (Revision)

2015-07-16T00:00:00

Citation identifier

HY.IE.EPA.WFD_GWB_Status_2007_2009

Purpose

To meet the conditions set by the European Communities Environmental Objectives (Groundwater) Regulations, 2010.

Status

Completed

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Environmental Protection Agency	Water Framework Directive	gis@epa.ie	Point of contact

Maintenance and update frequency

As needed

GemetInspireTheme

• Hydrography

GEMET - Concepts, version 2.4

• groundwater protection

• groundwater

• groundwater quality

• water

• aquatic environment

• environmental quality

• water quality

• water management

Environmental Protection Agency

• Ground waterbody status

• GWB status

• Ground water status

• ground waters

• hydrography

• clean waters

• water quality monitoring

• water status

ISO 3166

• IE

Use limitation

no limitations

Use limitation

Data is for public use under Creative Commons CC-By 4.0

Access constraints

License

Use constraints

License

Other constraints

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Spatial representation type

Vector

Denominator

50000

Language

English

Character set

UTF8

Topic category

• Environment

Begin date

2010-01-01T00:00:00

End date

2015-07-16T00:00:00

Supplemental Information

See gis.epa.ie for full details on data resource

Reference system identifier

http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/29902

EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset EPSG 2009-11-25

Distribution format

Name	Version
ESRI Shapefile	10.x

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Environmental Protection Agency	Water Framework Directive	gis@epa.ie	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
text/html	http://gis.epa.ie/GetData/Download	Download Data

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
application/json	http://gis.epa.ie/geoserver/EPA/wms?service=WMS&version=1.1.0&request=GetMap&layers=EPA:WFD_GWBStatus_20072012&styles=&bbox=20386.549700000323,19619.87450000085,334518.00090000033,459757.56189999916&width=548&height=768&srs=EPSG:29902&format=image%2Fpng	WMS GetMap

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
text/html	http://www.epa.ie/pubs/reports/water/waterqua/wqr20102012/WaterQualityReport.pdf	View Report

Hierarchy level

Dataset

Statement

The European Communities Environmental Objectives (Groundwater) Regulations,

2010 define the criteria for groundwater body classification. In order to assess whether these

conditions are being met, a series of tests has been prescribed for each of the quality elements

defining good (chemical and quantitative) groundwater status.

Status assessments are required for all groundwater bodies identified as being at risk of failing

one or more objectives of the WFD. The assessments show the impacts of abstraction and

pollutants on groundwater at the time of assessment. The groundwater bodies range in size

from less than 1 km2

to 1,884 km2

which may be a consequence of the physical setting or the specific

management objective. While the water body may be at good status, there can still be localised

environmental risks, e.g. where the local pollution impacts on groundwater quality which is not

substantial enough to impact on the status of the whole groundwater body.

Classification of groundwater bodies differs from that undertaken for surface water bodies,

in that the surface water standards relate to ecological status and these standards define

the classification boundaries. Groundwater status does not directly assess ecology, but the

classification process takes account of the ecological needs of the relevant rivers and terrestrial

ecosystems that depend on contributions from groundwater. Another key component of the

groundwater classification is assessment of the impact of pollution on the uses (or potential

uses) of groundwater from the groundwater body, e.g. for water supply.

Five chemical and four quantitative tests have been developed to assess whether the WFD

objectives are met. The worst-case classification from the relevant chemical status tests

is reported as the overall chemical status for the groundwater body, and the worst-case

classification of the quantitative tests is reported as the overall quantitative status for the

groundwater body. Tests for assessing chemical status of groundwater include; looking for evidence of saline or

other intrusions, exceedances of a range of quality standards and thresholds that would result

in failure to achieve the environmental objectives of associated surface waters, groundwaterdependent

terrestrial ecosystems, or drinking water protected areas. It also involves looking for

evidence of deteriorating trends in quality. Tests for assessing quantitative status of groundwater

focus on over-abstraction of groundwater and include; looking for evidence of saline or other

intrusions due to change in groundwater levels, impacts on the environmental objectives of

associated surface waters and groundwater-dependent terrestrial ecosystems due to alterations

in groundwater levels, and assessing water balances to determine whether the available

groundwater resource is exceeded by the long-term annual average rate of abstraction. Full

details of status tests are available on the Agency’s website10.

A groundwater status update was carried out in December 2014 for a number of the main

status sub-tests that caused groundwater bodies to be at “Poor Status”, both quantitative and

chemical, from the first River Basin Management Plan cycle. Further updates will be made to

groundwater body status in 2015 following the completion of a groundwater body boundary

review (physical characterisation) and further risk characterisation. EPA WFD groundwater

quality data from 2007 to 2012 have generally been used where an update has been carried

out, with trends based on data from 2000 to 2012, where available. Where the status update

has not been carried out in 2014, the results of the status reported in 2011, based on EPA WFD

groundwater quality data from 2003 to 2008, have been taken forward.

Metadata

File identifier

d4e42b90-aed6-4b89-b0f2-1fdb59d74ce0 XML

Metadata language

English

Character set

UTF8

Hierarchy level

Dataset

Date stamp

2023-07-19T07:45:39.125Z

Metadata standard name

ISDI Metadata Profile

Metadata standard version

1.2

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Environmental Protection Agency	Data Analyst	gis@edenireland.ie	Point of contact