Water Framework Directive (WFD) River Basin Districts Cycle 2

Water Framework Directive (WFD) River Basin Districts (RBD) is a polygon Shapefile dataset containing attributes that have been collated as defined for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Article 2, clause 2 of the WFD defines them as '...the area of land and sea, made up of one or more neighbouring river basins together with their associated groundwaters and coastal waters…'. River Basin Districts have been delineated by using River Catchments as "building blocks" that have been aggregated together within a GIS ensuring that WFD rivers do not intersect boundaries. Coastal and transitional waterbodies are also merged and assigned to a river basin district. River Catchments were delineated through use of flow data and a digital terrain model run through a hydrological model. These data apply to Cycle 2 of the Water Framework Directive.