1) Data model

The data set follows the WISE spatial data model described in the WISE GIS guidance, available at https://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/help/WFD/WFD_780_2022/GISGuidance/WISE_GIS_Guidance.pdf

The formal XSD schemas are available at https://dd.eionet.europa.eu/schemaset/WFD2022

The formal UML model is available at https://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/help/WFD/WFD_780_2022/UML%20Data%20specification/WFD2022.EAP

Refer to the WISE GIS guidance for the mapping between the GML elements in the XML schema and the corresponding fields in Shapefile format.

Some additional fields are present in the shapefiles: cYear, country, lat, lon, statusCode, statusDate, remarks and qcCheck.

cYear: Integer field containing the value 2013 for the objects that have never been reported in WISE-5

country:Two-letter ISO code of the country (ISO 3166 alpha-2), except for Greece and the United Kingdom, for which the abbreviations EL and UK are used.

lat: Latitude, in decimal degrees, of an arbitrary point located within the geometry of the object (if available)

lon: Longitude, in decimal degrees, of an arbitrary point located within the geometry of the object (if available)

statusCode: Status code of the thematic identifier in the WISE register (refer to Status for further information).

statusDate: Date of reference for the status code (typically the date when the data was extracted for publication).

remarks:Additional information about the status code of the superseding object, if any.

qcCheck:Additional information about checks performed in the data.

2) Data sources

Information reported until 2013 was compiled by the European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters. The legacy records can be selected using the criteria cYear = 2013.

Additional information was reported under the "WISE - Spatial Data (WISE-5)" data flow. See https://rod.eionet.europa.eu/obligations/806 and http://rod.eionet.europa.eu/obligations/716 for further information on the reporting .

For the EU27 countries, Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom, the EIONET data was consolidated with the full national datasets reported under the "Water Framework Directive - River Basin Management Plans - 2016 Spatial data" (hereafter WFD2016). See http://rod.eionet.europa.eu/obligations/717 for further information on the reporting.

3) Data processing

The EIONET data were updated using data reported in WFD2016, whenever the spatial objects could be matched.

For EIONET objects, some information may be missing, if the objects have not been reported since 2013. Objects that no longer exist or were replaced have wiseEvolutionType = 'deletion'.

4) Data quality

THIS DATASET DOES NOT FULLY COMPLY WITH THE WISE SPATIAL DATA MODEL SPECIFICATION.

The reason for non-compliance is that not all the information required by the WISE spatial data model is available for the legacy data reported before 2013.

The geometry of the objects was obtained from the spatial data files, where available. A conventional geometry was included for the objects for which only the location of the representative point was available.

Traceability from a spatial object in the dataset to a specific data element and data file in a Central Data Repository delivery is not possible.

No geometric or topological error correction was performed.

Basic automated editing of string values (upper-casing, trimming, removal of invalid characters or values) was performed.

The compliance of the identifiers of the spatial objects with the requirements of the WISE-5 model was verified.

Thematic identifiers must start with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code, except for Greece ('EL') and the United Kingdom ('UK').

Thematic identifiers must comply with the following Regex pattern: ^[A-Z]{2}[0-9A-Z]{1}([0-9A-Z_-]{0,38}[0-9A-Z]{1}){0,1}$

A valid identifier was proposed for each invalid identifier. The changes can be traced via the WISE registers.

5) WISE registers

For river basin districts and sub-units, the register of WISE thematic identifiers is kept in http://dd.eionet.europa.eu/vocabulary/wise/SpatialUnit

For surface water bodies and groundwater bodies, the register of WISE thematic identifiers is kept in http://dd.eionet.europa.eu/vocabulary/wise/WaterBody

For monitoring sites, the register of WISE thematic identifiers is kept in http://dd.eionet.europa.eu/vocabulary/wise/MonitoringSite