In the last couple of years a whole host of data has become available, specifically about the Island’s water-courses. This data is available to anyone to underpin a weight of evidence approach for any local projects. As much of this data is being constantly updated it is mainly accessible through links. There are several places to look, so please look at the options below.
Island Rivers Website
The Island Rivers Website. Data is made available on the appropriate river page. Here there is also access to past reports on individual water-courses where we have been able to find them, and there is also access to records of catchment walkovers conducted by Island Rivers. So if you want details on the River Medina, please go to the River Medina page and scroll down to ‘Technical Bits’ and ‘Further Reading’. In addition, the Island Rivers Catchment Plan has useful maps for most watercourses (Section 6) which detail past and present projects, and our future aspirations.
The CaBA Data & GIS Pacakges
There is a vast source of online data available at https://data.catchmentbasedapproach.org/ Here open data has been grouped to help identify issues and opportunities for collaborative action to improve river catchments. Additional datasets are available to partnerships for offline use only – contact Island Rivers for access and pay special attention to licence restrictions. You will need to book an appointment to see us.
Environment Agency Catchment Data Explorer
The Catchment Data Explorer helps you explore and download information about the water environment. It supports and builds upon the data in the river basin management plans. This is the link to the 10 Water Framework Directive rivers on the Island https://environment.data.gov.uk/catchment-planning/OperationalCatchment/3235 and this to the 8 transitional and coastal water bodies https://environment.data.gov.uk/catchment-planning/OperationalCatchment/3236 . From these links you can explore each watercourse in terms of its classification, issues and an analysis of reasons for not achieving good status.
Copernicus
This website provides data in the form of maps and downloads for the Island’s riparian zones: https://land.copernicus.eu/local/riparian-zones . The Riparian Zones products support the objectives of several European legal acts and policy initiatives, such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, the Habitats and Birds Directives and the Water Framework Directive. There are three complementary product groups – land-use cover, delineation of riparian zones and green links. Additionally this is a water and wetness dataset https://land.copernicus.eu/pan-european/high-resolution-layers/water-wetness/status-maps/2015