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Waterbase - Water Quantity

Data
Prod-ID: DAT-58-en
Created 29 Mar 2011 Published 30 Mar 2011 Last modified 15 Dec 2022
17 min read
This page was archived on 24 Aug 2017 with reason: A new version has been published (There is a new published version.)
Waterbase is the generic name given to the EEA's databases on the status and quality of Europe's rivers, lakes, groundwater bodies and transitional, coastal and marine waters, and on the quantity of Europe's water resources

European data

Waterbase - Water Quantity (9 tables)

Dataset contains all time series related to water quantity data, reported by member and collaborating countries. Reported data have been assessed and processed by the ETC-ICM and the EEA. Results of quality assessment have been incorporated into the individual data tables.

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Geographical Entities of Water Quantity monitoring (Waterbase_WQ_v6_gentities, 6646 records)

Geographical entities of the WISE-SoE Water quantity monitoring. They may be related to areas such as River Basin Districts (RBD), Sub-Units (SU) or Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS). Fields RBDcode, SubUnitCode and NUTS refer to the area in which the geographical entity is located or to which it belongs.

Field name Definition Note data type
RecordID Unique record identifier long
RecordReported Date when the records was reported by the data provider. text(10)
CountryCode Abbreviation of EEA Member or Collaborating Country ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 code elements text(2)
GEntityCode Code of the geographical entity to which the data is directly related. If it is a station this field gives the code of the station. If it is a region it gives the code of the region. For most regional categories e.g. Country, RBD, NUTS the codes are defined on the European level. For stations the codes are given by the member states. text(50)
GEntityName Name of the geographical entity to which the data is directly related. If it is a station this field gives the name of the station. If it is a region it gives the name of the region. text(200)
GEntityType Type of the geographical entity to which the data is directly related. C - Country
RBD - River Basin District
NUTS - Level 1, 2 or 3 of Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics
SU - Sub-Unit
W - Well
R - Reservoir
RG - Rain Gauge Station
SF - Stream flow station
LI - Large Item (City, Industry, Agricultural Unit)
text(4)
RBDcode River Basin District Code text(20)
SubUnitCode National identification code of Sub-Unit. text(50)
NUTS The lowest possible level code of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS1, NUTS2 or NUTS3) in which the geographical entity is located. text(5)

Characteristics of Rain Gauge Stations (Waterbase_WQ_v6_rain_gauge_station, 2685 records)

Basic information on rain gauge stations used in the WISE-SoE Water quantity monitoring. It is assumed that these stations were used to calculate the areal precipitation requested in the water balance of this area (see table WQ-area).

Field name Definition Note data type
RecordID Unique record identifier long
RecordReported Date when the records was reported by the data provider. text(10)
CountryCode Abbreviation of EEA Member or Collaborating Country ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 code elements text(2)
GEntityCode Code of the geographical entity to which the data is directly related. If it is a station this field gives the code of the station. If it is a region it gives the code of the region. For most regional categories e.g. Country, RBD, NUTS the codes are defined on the European level. For stations the codes are given by the member states. text(50)
Longitude International geographical longitude (x) co-ordinate in decimal degrees format. decimal
Latitude International geographical latitude (x) co-ordinate in decimal degrees format. decimal
Altitude Altitude of station in metres above sea level. long
RiverBasinName Name of river basin where the station is located. text(255)
RiverBasinArea Area (in km2) of river basin where the station is located. decimal
SubcatchmentName Name of sub-catchment where the station is located. text(255)
SubcatchmentArea Area (in km2) of sub-catchment where the station is located. decimal
WFDstation Specification yes / no, whether the monitoring station was reported to European Commission as Water Framework Directive, Article 8 monitoring station. text(3)
EIONETstation Specification yes / no, whether the monitoring station was reported as EIONET station. text(3)
DataPeriod_from Starting year of available data long
DataPeriod_to Ending year of available data long
TimeScale Smallest possible scale of available data that can be provided upon request. text(8)
QA_station_issues Quality assessment field - stations data quality issues flag List of codes of Gentity specific data issues detected in the record. Details are explained in the QA documentation. text(100)

Characteristics of Reservoirs (Waterbase_WQ_v6_reservoirs, 89 records)

Basic information on reservoirs used in the WISE-SoE Water quantity monitoring. The total volume of water entering in (Inflow) and released from (Outflow) a natural or manmade reservoir in various temporal scales may be stored in table WQ-time_series.

Field name Definition Note data type
RecordID Unique record identifier long
RecordReported Date when the records was reported by the data provider. text(10)
CountryCode Abbreviation of EEA Member or Collaborating Country ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 code elements text(2)
GEntityCode Code of the geographical entity to which the data is directly related. If it is a station this field gives the code of the station. If it is a region it gives the code of the region. For most regional categories e.g. Country, RBD, NUTS the codes are defined on the European level. For stations the codes are given by the member states. text(50)
Longitude International geographical longitude (x) co-ordinate in decimal degrees format. decimal
Latitude International geographical latitude (x) co-ordinate in decimal degrees format. decimal
ReservoirType Reservoir type Natural, Man-made text(8)
StorageCapacity Storage capacity of the reservoir in hm3. decimal
LTAA_year_from Starting year of reference period used to calculate long term annual average (LTAA). long
LTAA_year_to Ending year of reference period used to calculate long term annual average (LTAA). long
QA_station_issues Quality assessment field - stations data quality issues flag List of codes of Gentity specific data issues detected in the record. Details are explained in the QA documentation. text(100)

Characteristics of Stream Flow Stations (Waterbase_WQ_v6_stream_flow_stations, 539 records)

Basic information on stream flow stations used in the WISE-SoE Water quantity monitoring. Measured stream flow data on selected gauging stations within the RBD at daily time scale may be also stored in table WQ-TimeSeries. This table stores metadata of stream flow measurements and supplementary statistics such as mean, min, max, monthly values plus the dates of min and max observations.

Field name Definition Note data type
RecordID Unique record identifier long
RecordReported Date when the records was reported by the data provider. text(10)
CountryCode Abbreviation of EEA Member or Collaborating Country ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 code elements text(2)
GEntityCode Code of the geographical entity to which the data is directly related. If it is a station this field gives the code of the station. If it is a region it gives the code of the region. For most regional categories e.g. Country, RBD, NUTS the codes are defined on the European level. For stations the codes are given by the member states. text(50)
Longitude International geographical longitude (x) co-ordinate in decimal degrees format. decimal
Latitude International geographical latitude (x) co-ordinate in decimal degrees format. decimal
Altitude Altitude of station in metres above sea level. long
RiverName National name of river. text(150)
RiverBasinName Name of river basin where the station is located. text(255)
RiverBasinArea Area (in km2) of river basin where the station is located. decimal
SubcatchmentName Name of sub-catchment where the station is located. text(255)
SubcatchmentArea Area (in km2) of sub-catchment where the station is located. decimal
WFDstation Specification yes / no, whether the monitoring station was reported to European Commission as Water Framework Directive, Article 8 monitoring station. text(3)
EIONETstation Specification yes / no, whether the monitoring station was reported as EIONET station. text(3)
DataPeriod_from Starting year of available data long
DataPeriod_to Ending year of available data long
MinDischarge Lowest recorded stream flow in m3/s. decimal
MinDischarge_date Date of the lowest recorded stream flow in format YYYY-MM-DD. text(10)
MaxDischarge Highest recorded stream flow in m3/s. decimal
MaxDischarge_date Date of the highest recorded stream flow in format YYYY-MM-DD. text(10)
LTAA Long Term Annual Average in m3/s. decimal
LTA_month1 Long term average stream flow of month 1 (January) in m3/s. decimal
LTA_month2 Long term average stream flow of month 2 (February) in m3/s. decimal
LTA_month3 Long term average stream flow of month 3 (March) in m3/s. decimal
LTA_month4 Long term average stream flow of month 4 (April) in m3/s. decimal
LTA_month5 Long term average stream flow of month 5 (May) in m3/s. decimal
LTA_month6 Long term average stream flow of month 6 (June) in m3/s. decimal
LTA_month7 Long term average stream flow of month 7 (July) in m3/s. decimal
LTA_month8 Long term average stream flow of month 8 (August) in m3/s. decimal
LTA_month9 Long term average stream flow of month 9 (September) in m3/s. decimal
LTA_month10 Long term average stream flow of month 10 (October) in m3/s. decimal
LTA_month11 Long term average stream flow of month 11 (November) in m3/s. decimal
LTA_month12 Long term average stream flow of month 12 (December) in m3/s. decimal
LTAA_year_from Starting year of reference period used to calculate long term annual average (LTAA). long
LTAA_year_to Ending year of reference period used to calculate long term annual average (LTAA). long
QA_station_issues Quality assessment field - stations data quality issues flag List of codes of Gentity specific data issues detected in the record. Details are explained in the QA documentation. text(100)

Characteristics of Wells (Waterbase_WQ_v6_wells, 1059 records)

Basic information on wells used in the WISE-SoE Water quantity monitoring (groundwater level measuring). Groundwater level observations from wells located within the reporting unit (RBD or other) in various temporal scales may be stored in table WQ-time_series.

RecordID Unique record identifier long
RecordReported Date when the records was reported by the data provider. text(10)
CountryCode Abbreviation of EEA Member or Collaborating Country ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 code elements text(2)
GEntityCode Code of the geographical entity to which the data is directly related. If it is a station this field gives the code of the station. If it is a region it gives the code of the region. For most regional categories e.g. Country, RBD, NUTS the codes are defined on the European level. For stations the codes are given by the member states. text(50)
Longitude International geographical longitude (x) co-ordinate in decimal degrees format. decimal
Latitude International geographical latitude (x) co-ordinate in decimal degrees format. decimal
Altitude Altitude of station in metres above sea level. long
GWBname Name of the groundwater body text(255)
GWBoutsideRB Flag identifying whether or not the groundwater body is expanding outside the river basin. text(1)
GWBoutsideRBD Flag identifying whether or not the groundwater body is expanding outside the river basin district. text(1)
MinLevel_month Month in which the minimum groundwater level is expected. long
MaxLevel_month Month in which the maximummum groundwater level is expected. long
LTAA_year_from Starting year of reference period used to calculate long term annual average (LTAA). long
LTAA_year_to Ending year of reference period used to calculate long term annual average (LTAA). long
LTAA Long Term Annual Average in m. decimal
QA_station_issues Quality assessment field - stations data quality issues flag List of codes of Gentity specific data issues detected in the record. Details are explained in the QA documentation. text(100)

Characteristics of Large Items (Waterbase_WQ_v6_large_item, 7 records)

Basic information on large items - major water users (big cities, large industries, large agricultural units) - used in the WISE-SoE Water quantity monitoring (describing the volume of freshwater used per item). Actual measurements of water used in cities, industries, agricultural units in various temporal scales may be stored in table WQ-time_series.

RecordID Unique record identifier long
RecordReported Date when the records was reported by the data provider. text(10)
CountryCode Abbreviation of EEA Member or Collaborating Country ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 code elements text(2)
GEntityCode Code of the geographical entity to which the data is directly related. If it is a station this field gives the code of the station. If it is a region it gives the code of the region. For most regional categories e.g. Country, RBD, NUTS the codes are defined on the European level. For stations the codes are given by the member states. text(50)
LIcategory Category of the large item. text(20)
LIclass Class of the large item. 1: The item belongs to Class 1, the class grouping the largest abstraction sites, together representing 50 to 70% of the activity (as a rule of thumb for domestic use, class 1 should be made of those agglomerations that together host in the range of 50% - 70% of total population per district); 2: The item belongs to Class 2, the intermediate class; 3: The item belongs to Class 3, the class of smallest abstraction sites, representing 60 to 80% in number (or more) and in the range of 5 to 15% in cumulated activity. long

Characteristics of Areas (Waterbase_WQ_v6_areas, 99 records)

Basic information on areas - country, river basin district, sub-unit, NUTS - used in the WISE-SoE Water quantity monitoring (reporting measurements i.e. water use, water balance or water abstraction). Actual measurements are stored in table WQ-time_series.

RecordID Unique record identifier long
RecordReported Date when the records was reported by the data provider. text(10)
CountryCode Abbreviation of EEA Member or Collaborating Country ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 code elements text(2)
GEntityCode Code of the geographical entity to which the data is directly related. If it is a station this field gives the code of the station. If it is a region it gives the code of the region. For most regional categories e.g. Country, RBD, NUTS the codes are defined on the European level. For stations the codes are given by the member states. text(50)
AreaType Type of the area. C - Country
NUTS - Level 1, 2 or 3 of Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics
RBDD - River basin District
SU - Sub-unit
text(4)
WU_LTAA_year_from Starting year of reference period used to calculate long term annual average (LTAA) for water use variables. long
WU_LTAA_year_to Ending year of reference period used to calculate long term annual average (LTAA) for water use variables. long
WB_LTAA_year_from Starting year of reference period used to calculate long term annual average (LTAA) for water balance variables. long
WB_LTAA_year_to Ending year of reference period used to calculate long term annual average (LTAA) for water balance variables. long
WB_Returned_Unit The hydrological unit to which the "returned after use" effluent is discharged (if it is different than the one where the water was originally abstracted). text(255)
WB_Reused_Unit The hydrological unit to which the reused water is made available (if it is different than the one where the water was originally abstracted). text(255)
WB_Imports_Origin The hydrological unit from which the water imports come. text(255)
WB_Exports_Destination The hydrological unit to which the exported water goes. text(255)
WB_Artif_GW_Origin Information on where artificial groundwater recharge originates from. text(20)
WA_LTAA_year_from Starting year of reference period used to calculate long term annual average (LTAA) for water abstraction variables. long
WA_LTAA_year_to Ending year of reference period used to calculate long term annual average (LTAA) for water abstraction variables. long
QA_ALRviolations Quality assessment field - list of areal logical rules violations. List of codes of areal logical rules violated by Water quantity record. Details are explained in the QA documentation. memo
QA_station_issues Quality assessment field - stations data quality issues flag List of codes of Gentity specific data issues detected in the record. Details are explained in the QA documentation. text(100)

Water Abstraction Sources (Waterbase_WQ_v6_water_abstraction_sources, 18 records)

Table contains list of non-freshwater abstraction sources per sector and area.

RecordID Unique record identifier long
RecordReported Date when the records was reported by the data provider. text(10)
CountryCode Abbreviation of EEA Member or Collaborating Country ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 code elements text(2)
GEntityCode Code of geographical entity that uniquely identifies the area (see WQ-Area table). text(50)
SectorCode Code of sector for which water is abstracted. text(50)
WaterSource The main water source type for the specific sector and area (region). text(20)

Water Quantity Time Series (Waterbase_WQ_v6_time_series, 290634 records)

Table contains time series data for all measured variables of the WISE-SoE Water quantity monitoring. Time series are related to exactly one geographical entity, which is a station, a reservoir, another point entity or an area (region) e.g. a river basin district.

RecordID Unique record identifier long
RecordReported Date when the records was reported by the data provider. text(10)
CountryCode Abbreviation of EEA Member or Collaborating Country ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 code elements text(2)
GEntityCode Code of the geographical entity to which the data is directly related. If it is a station this field gives the code of the station. If it is a region it gives the code of the region. For most regional categories e.g. Country, RBD, NUTS the codes are defined on the European level. For stations the codes are given by the member states. text(50)
Year Year of aggregation period in which samples were taken/Year in which sample was taken. long
TimeStep A fixed time step for the time series. text(8)
Index The index of the time series value within the given reporting year. Annual time series have always index = 1. The range of other time series are as follows: seasonal: 1 (wet season) - 2 (dry season); monthly: 1-12 (starting with January i.e. calendar year, not hydrological year); daily: 1-365 or 366 (depending of the year, starting with January 1st). long
VariableCode The name or code of the measured variable. text(100)
Unit The unit of the measurement for the time series. text(4)
Value The measured value of the variable. decimal
QA_LRviolations Quality assessment field - list of logical rules violations. List of codes of logical rules violated by record. Details are explained in the QA documentation. text(100)
QA_ALRviolations Quality assessment field - list of areal logical rules violations. List of codes of areal logical rules violated by Water quantity record. Details are explained in the QA documentation. memo

Additional information

Tables metadata

Definition and field description of the data table.

Code lists

Lists and description of codes of fields present in the water quantity data tables

QA documentation

Quality control documentation briefly presents ETC-ICM and EEA activities focused on quality of Waterbase-Water Quantity dataset and results of these activities.

Metadata

Additional information

Waterbase contains timely, reliable and policy-relevant data collected from EEA member countries through the WISE-SoE data collection (formerly known as Eionet-Water and Eurowaternet) process. WISE-SoE data collection selects validated monitoring data from national databases and adds information on the physical characteristics of the water bodies being monitored and on the pressures potentially affecting water quality. The added value of Waterbase is that data collected through the WISE-SoE data collection process are from statistically stratified monitoring stations and groundwater bodies and are comparable at the European level. Waterbase data are primarily used in the production of the EEAs indicator-based factsheets.

Water quantity database is published again, after 3 years long break. In 2007 the old dataset structure was abandoned and development of new structure and new system for collecting data have started. First data collection test was run in 2008. In 2009 a new reporting system was established and used by country reporters in another data collection test which has provided data for previous version. This version is a result of the 2010 data collection, which is expected to be added to the set of the stable priority data flows in 2011.