1. WISE GIS Group 15 January 2008
John Cima

2. Chapter 3.1 Reference datasets

3. Reference datasets Three Types
Water Reference GIS datasets
hydrological layers to provide a comparable basis for visualisation and assessment cross Europe.
Background GIS datasets
European-wide layers to provide context to mapping and support analysis
External GIS datasets
other analytical layers (such as CCM2) maintained by third parties to support of analysis and visualisation
Main criterion is “relatively stable over time”

4. Water Reference Datasets
River Basin Districts
Sub-Units
Subsets of Water Bodies
Rivers
Lakes
Transitional Waters
Coastal Waters
Artificial Waters
Heavily Modified Waters
Surface Water Bodies
Groundwaters

5. Water Reference Datasets
WISE Reference Dataset
Background information
1. Large Rivers and Lakes
Rivers with a catchment size > 50,000 sq kms and tributaries > 5000 sq kms
Large Rivers Based on 1 :10,000,000 GISCO data, supplemented by Article 3 Main Rivers and compiled as part of the electronic Article 3 submission delivery process.
Large Lakes are Lakes with a surface area > 500kms
2. Main Rivers, Lakes, Artificial Waters, Heavily Modified Waters,
No specific definition of main Transitional Waters, Costal Waters and Groundwaters.
Main Rivers based on the Art.3 resubmission. Then processed to ensure that they represent all rivers with catchments > 500 km2.
Large Lakes are Lakes with a surface area > 100kms
Large Artificial Waters and Heavily Modified waters are a selected subsets of water bodies
All transitional, coastal and groundwaters are considered to be Main

6. Water Reference Datasets
WISE Reference Dataset
Background information
3. Water bodies
Equivalent to the Article 5 Submissions of Rivers, lakes, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwaters.
4. RBDs
Derived from the Article 3 resubmissions. Available at four scales.
5. Sub-Units
To be based on the proposed submission of Sub-Units.

7. Use of Water Reference Datasets
All Member States reporting can be represented as or linked to hydrographical features
Indicators can be represented at either hydrological level or aggregation level
Only objects defined at the hydrological level will be displayed.
At aggregation level only overall indicators (e.g. RBD average or max/min values) are displayed.

8. Outline time table and progress
Commission responsibility to create Water Reference datasets.
Process started in 2006 and is planned to continue until 2010
Longer term plan being devised by EEA
Current state of play
The Large River Network was established in 2006 based on the 1:10,000,000 GISCO rivers data set, supplemented by Article 3 Main Rivers.
The rivers that will form the basis of the Main River Network were established in 2007 as part of the Article 3 re-submission process.
Work now required to develop into a topological hydrological layer
Harmonised set of the River Basin District polygons were established in 2007.
National RBDs harmonised to EGM boundaries
Revision underway to include the Article 3 re-submission detail and due for completion in early 2008.
Plans required to incorporate Sub-Units

9. Issues with Water Reference datasets
Main Rivers
How to link WFD River Water Bodies to Main Rivers
Determining line graphics for rivers provided as point geometry
Providing extensions of river water bodies to meet the coast-line
Main Heavily Modified and Artificial water bodies
Agreeing sub-set criteria e.g. large reservoirs
National Borders
Graphical inconsistencies
Duplicate definition of water bodies
Establishing the European hydrological codes
Maintaining changes
Water Bodies, RBDs and Sub-Units

10. Background and External datasets
As defined in the WISE viewer
Background layers are as follows
Water layers, Borders, Countries, Forest, Ocean, Settlements, Roads, Built-up areas
Available at various scales
External datasets
CCM, Corine, Euro Regions, Competent Authorities