Reference Sections

The Reference Sections database covers sections of watercourses and shores of lakes which are important for the determination of the type of surface water characteristic of reference conditions, as laid down in the Decree on water management plans for river basin districts of the Danube and the Adriatic Sea (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No 67/16). The reference sections as laid down in the Decree on water management plans in the Danube and Adriatic RBDs (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No 67/16) are stretches of watercourses and shores of lakes, where reference points are located, which are sites with only minor changes to the hydromorphological, physico-chemical and biological elements of the quality of the ecological status of surface waters due to human activity and comply with the definitions for very good ecological status in accordance with the regulation governing the status of surface waters. Reference sections of watercourses are defined as sections of watercourses 400 m upstream and 100 m downstream of the reference point. The reference sections on lakes are the stretches of the shore of the lake where there are several consecutive 100-metre stretches with only very small changes in the hydromorphological, physico-chemical and biological quality elements of the ecological status of surface waters due to human activity, which meet the definitions for very good ecological status in accordance with the regulation governing the status of surface waters. In accordance with Article 4 (4) of the Decree on water management plans for river basin districts of the Danube and the Adriatic Sea (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No 67/16), reference sections and their geographical boundaries are defined on the digital data layer for the level of criterion 1: 25,000 in the national coordinate system. Data on reference sections and their geographical boundaries shall include in particular: — the identification number of the reference section; — the code and name of the surface water body where the reference section is determined; — the type of surface waters for the evaluation of ecological status (organic type) for which a reference stretch is established; — the length of the reference section; — the size of the contribution area of the reference section; and — date of designation of the reference section. Reference sections of watercourses comprise a layer Reference sections of watercourses. The reference sections of the shore of the lakes shall comprise the layer Reference Sections on Lakes. The sections upstream and downstream of the reference sections as defined in the Decree on river basin management plans for the Danube and the Adriatic Sea (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No 67/16) include the collection of Sections downstream and upstream of the reference sections.