This personal geodatabase (compatible Access 1997 and beyond, ArcGis® 9.3.0 and beyond) contains the “lakes” datasets of Ecrins v1.0 Lakes are very important features of any hydrographical system and have hence been added to Ecrins. This feature is more uncertain than the other ones since it results from the processing of different sources under a twin constraint of relevance and free of charges accessibility. The current layer comprises 70,847 lake objects, that will certainly be updated in the months to come. A lake is, as a river both a geometric and cultural object. In areas where many lakes are intertwined, the difference between one and several lakes is often that a name has been found or not or that the Corine Land cover maker has placed a limit or not. The database comprises the following tables: feature class C_Lak with all information related to all still waterbodies which area is more than the Corine Land cover threshold, plus those identified because a reservoir or any other relevant source. This table is completed by the centroids of lakes, V_lak_Centro. The complex relationships between lakes and river segments are documented by table lakInOut where the inlet and the outlet(s) segments are reported. Complementary tables, needed by the water accounts, v_lakperadmin et v_linterfec respectively document the lake to administrative entities, with shared area and same with FECs. Being in relation with the other components of Ecrins, lakes are versioned with respect to catchments and rivers and with their update as well. Lake naming comes from fours sources: ERM, Eldred2, Art 13 reporting and Wikipedia. Hydrographical information (volume, Zaverage, Zmax) and is permanently updated from three source: Eldred2, the dams database, and Wikipedia In version 1.0, the history of lakes is not documented. Most natural lakes have a time span much before and beyond the expected duration of Ecrins. Artificial lakes, related to dams have their history documented with the dam and some natural lakes are intermittent. This last category is not documented. Since lower limit for lake inclusion is 25 ha, all “main lakes” under the WFD acceptation are present (except if missed for any reason, the most likely being creation of an artificial reservoir not present in the latest update). Full documentation is in EEA technical report 9/2012, downloadable from the EEA website.

This personal geodatabases (compatible Access 1997 and beyond, ArcGis® 9.3.0 and beyond) contains the aggregation catchments datasets of Ecrins v1.0 The purpose of Ecrins is modelling and homogeneous assessment of any data sets and information in relation with continental catchment systems. The WFD is the main driver of creation of such aggregates. The uppermost aggregate of the WFD is the “river basin district” that is not hydrological entity. It is analysed as i) all those FECS being in majority in the official RBD delineation, ii) all those FECs, topologically connected, that are the closet shaping of the RBD, the “functional RBD”. For example, the upper Garonne is in the first case attached the Ebro RBD and to the Garonne functional RBD because the water empties in the Gironde, not in the Mediterranean RBD sizes lay in a wide range. Two categories of sub-basins have been designed, the “sub-basins Strahler, aggregated from a Strahler order criterion and the natural sub-basins, aggregated from a main affluent criterion. Both apportion functional RBDs. The tables are C_B, the catchments that empty on a se-shore (as the seas from SeaVox, care taken of islands: e.g. England and France vs. British Channel are different C_B, despite same sea shore) RBD_Int_clp are the RBDs, dissolved as international RBDs; C_FRBD functional RBDs C_SS: sub-basins based on Strahler definition, C_SB: sub-basins natural C_NUTS: harmonised table of “pseudo nuts” used to document FECs (largest share of FEC in a NUT). NUT level has been selected to match best French NUTS2, making appropriate aggregate in those countries not using the NUTs classification; C_try: delineation of countries to which FECs have been set. The ID of each feature in each feature class are those in the C_Zhyd table of EcrFEC. Full documentation is in EEA technical report 9/2012, downloadable from the EEA website.

The shape file GWB_horizon_h4 comprises all GWBs located in the groundwater body horizon 4, which are usually underlying the groundwater bodies assigned to horizon 3. The dbf tables of the shape files include the columns “EU_CD_GW” as the GWB identifier and “Horizon” describing the vertical positioning. The polygon identifier “Polygon_ID” was added subsequently, because some GWBs consist of several polygons with identical “EU_CD_GW”even in the same horizon. Some further GWB characteristics are provided with the Microsoft Excel file “GWB_attributes_2012June.xls” including the column “EU_CD_GW”, which serves as a key for joining spatial and attribute data. There is no corresponding spatial data for GWBs in the Microsoft Excel table without an entry in column “EU_CD_GW”. The spatial resolution is given for about a half of the GWBs in the column “Scale” of the xls file, which is varying between the MS from 1:10,000 to 1:1,000,000 and mostly in the range from 1:50,000 to 1:250,000.

Water Framework Directive (WFD) Article 3 river basin districts (RBDs) v1.3. Definition in WFD: River basin district means the area of land and sea, made up of one or more neighbouring river basins together with their associated groundwaters and coastal waters, which is identified under Article 3(1) as the main unit for management of river basins. MS did not consistently include coastal waters in the RBD deliveries. Geographical coverage: EU Member States + Norway + Switzerland + neighbouring, international RBDs in non-EU Member States (derived from CCM1 catchments, JRC). The feature layer can be divided into four groupings by the following queries (in ArcGIS: copy and paste the query into the 'Definition Query' window in the layer properties): EU Member State RBDs: [EU_MS] = 'Y'; non-EU Member State RBDs: [EU_MS] = 'N' AND [intCode] = ''; EU Member State international RBDs: [INTERNATIONAL] = 'Y' AND [EU_MS] = 'Y'; Non-EU Member State international RBDs: [EU_MS] = 'N' AND [INTERNATIONAL] = 'Y'.

The shape file GWB_horizon_h2 comprises all GWBs located in the groundwater body horizon 2. Depending on the applied method these Ground Water Bodies are either underlying the uppermost groundwater body horizon 1 or form the uppermost groundwater body resources in many parts of a MS. The dbf tables of the shape files include the columns “EU_CD_GW” as the GWB identifier and “Horizon” describing the vertical positioning. The polygon identifier “Polygon_ID” was added subsequently, because some GWBs consist of several polygons with identical “EU_CD_GW”even in the same horizon. Some further GWB characteristics are provided with the Microsoft Excel file “GWB_attributes_2012June.xls” including the column “EU_CD_GW”, which serves as a key for joining spatial and attribute data. There is no corresponding spatial data for GWBs in the Microsoft Excel table without an entry in column “EU_CD_GW”. The spatial resolution is given for about a half of the GWBs in the column “Scale” of the xls file, which is varying between the MS from 1:10,000 to 1:1,000,000 and mostly in the range from 1:50,000 to 1:250,000.

Reference layer of the catchments of sensitive areas, Nov. 2017 is one of the datasets produced within the frame of the reporting under 9th UWWTD Art.15 reporting period (UWWTD data call 2015). The Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) (91/271/EEC) obliges Member States to report data on the implementation of the Directive upon request from the European Commission bi-annually. Reported data include receiving areas as designated under UWWTD, agglomerations, urban waste water treatment plants serving the agglomerations and points of discharges. Receiving area is the area receiving discharges of waste water from agglomerations. SA_catchment: the layer displays catchments of sensitive areas designated by Member States as sensitive.

"Transitional waters" are bodies of surface water in the vicinity of river mouths which are partly saline in character as a result of their proximity to coastal waters but which are substantially influenced by freshwater flows.

UWWTD Agglomerations, Nov. 2020 is one of the datasets produced within the frame of the reporting under 11th UWWTD Art.15 reporting period (UWWTD data call 2019). The Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) (91/271/EEC) obliges Member States to report data on the implementation of the Directive upon request from the European Commission bi-annually. Reported data include receiving areas as designated under UWWTD, agglomerations, urban waste water treatment plants serving the agglomerations and points of discharges. Dataset UWWTD_Agglomerations contains agglomerations reported by countries with generated load ≥ 2000 p.e. (or even smaller), including names, coordinates, generated load and information whether the load generated is collected through collecting system or addressed via Individual Appropriate Systems (IAS) or not collected not addressed via IAS. This dataset includes the reported agglomerations which are displayed on the UWWTD maps (https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/european-waters/water-use-and-environmental-pressures/uwwtd/interactive-maps/urban-waste-water-treatment-maps-3). The active agglomerations with correct coordinates in the reported data were selected from the source European UWWTD tabular dataset, which is available on the download link https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/waterbase-uwwtd-urban-waste-water-treatment-directive-7. The internal dataset which includes the inactive agglomerations as well is available under "Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, Agglomerations reported under UWWTD data call 2019 - INTERNAL VERSION, Nov. 2020".

Reference layer of the coastal waters sensitive areas - areas, Nov. 2017 is one of the datasets produced within the frame of the reporting under 9th UWWTD Art.15 reporting period (UWWTD data call 2015). The Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) (91/271/EEC) obliges Member States to report data on the implementation of the Directive upon request from the European Commission bi-annually. Reported data include receiving areas as designated under UWWTD, agglomerations, urban waste water treatment plants serving the agglomerations and points of discharges. Receiving area is the area receiving discharges of waste water from agglomerations. SA_coastA: the layer displays coastal waters sensitive areas - areas designated by Member States as sensitive.

In the Marine Strategy Framework Directive - MSFD (Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy), the following four marine regions are listed (art. 4): Baltic Sea, North-east Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. The present layer provides the spatial extent of these regions, as agreed by the MSFD Committee in November 2016.