State of bathing water

Quality of bathing water - 2011 bathing season

To allow Europeans to make an informed choice on which beach to choose, an annual report on the quality of coastal and freshwater bathing areas, as reported by EU Member States is prepared. This year the report has been prepared by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in cooperation with the European Commission DG Environment. The report assesses the bathing water quality in all 27 EU Member States in the 2011 bathing water season and thereby gives an indication of the areas where the quality of bathing is expected to be good this year.

Details on all Member States bathing waters for the 2011 season can be found in the national bathing water reports:

Each report contains details on bathing water monitoring in the specific country and an assessment of the 2011 results and the trend in bathing water quality.

The country reports are based on bathing water data available 1. May 2012.

• Detailed data are available via EEA WISE bathing water site.
• Data download: Bathing Water Directive - Status of bathing water 2011
• Archive: National reports for 2008, 2009 and 2010 bathing seasons
• Bathing water photo gallery
  

Bathing water quality interactive maps and data

We all want to know the quality of 'our' local bathing area, beach or lake, and whether it conforms to EU standards. Below you will find a data and map viewer that will allow you to view on-line the quality of the bathing water in the more than 21 000 coastal beaches and freshwater bathing waters across Europe. In addition, the Eye-on-Earth application makes it possible to follow the water quality during the 2012 season and make your own comments on the quality of the beach.

You can also check the bathing water quality on an interactive map, view the data for a selected country or region and make comparisons with previous years. The data can also be visualised in geospatial mapping programs such as Bing Maps and Google Earth maps.

Data viewer

Use WISE Bathing Water Quality data viewer for a quick check on locations and statistics on the quality of coastal and freshwater bathing waters. You can search by country, region, province and bathing water and see bathing waters in Bing Maps, Google Maps or Google Earth (needs to be installed on your computer). You can also explore how bathing waters have changed in recent years.

Map viewer

By using the WISE map viewer you can check the bathing water quality on an interactive map. It also documents how bathing waters have changed throughout Europe in recent years and provides a full summary of Europe’s bathing water quality in 2011.

Eye-on-Earth

The Eye On Earth — Water Watch application allows users to zoom in on a given section of the coast, riverbank or lake, both in street map or, where available, bird’s eye viewing formats. A ‘traffic-light’ indicator (red, amber, green) of bathing water quality, based on the official bathing water data, is put alongside the ratings of people who have visited the bathing site, including any comments users wish to make. For historical data, Water Watch uses a simplified index of bathing water quality data. The Eye On Earth application will be updated during the 2012 bathing water season with online bathing water quality results, providing an indication of the current quality. More detailed information can usually be found at national or local websites.

• More information on the Bathing Water Directives
• See also EU Commission's Bathing Water Homepage