GIS Map Application
03 Jun 2022
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 map viewer that will allow you to view on-line the quality of the bathing water in the almost 22 000 coastal beaches and freshwater bathing waters across Europe.
The figure shows the share of bathing water quality classes by country for the season of 2021.
The figure shows the share of bathing water quality classes by year.
The EU Bathing Waters Directive requires Member States to identify popular bathing places in fresh and coastal waters and monitor them for indicators of microbiological pollution (and other substances) throughout the bathing season which runs from May to September
Data Visualization
02 Jun 2022
Annual total water abstraction considered by economic sector i.e. agriculture, electricity cooling, manufacturing cooling, manufacturing, mining and quarrying, and construction and public water supply, as defined in NACE (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Communities) sections. Hydropower is excluded.
Data Visualization
01 Jun 2022
Water abstraction is from groundwater and surface water. Surface water contains water abstraction from rivers, reservoirs and lakes. The figure illustrates total annual water abstraction from groundwater and surface water by economic sector, i.e. agriculture, electricity cooling, manufacturing cooling, manufacturing, mining and quarrying, construction and public water supply, as defined in NACE (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Communities) sections. Hydropower is excluded.
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, on the quantity of Europe's water resources, and on the emissions to surface waters from point and diffuse sources of pollution.
Percentage of water use against water availability under the temperature scenario of 3 degree increase
This map illustrates water stress conditions across Europe, where water use is displayed as a percentage of total water available.
GIS Map Application
17 Nov 2021
The urban waste water treatment map shows the most recently reported information on the implementation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD). It is based on data from 2018 in EU-28 countries plus Iceland and Norway, which were reported by countries in 2020.
Indicator Assessment
31 Aug 2021
The Water Framework Directive aims to achieve good status for all rivers, lakes and transitional and coastal waters in the EU. Achieving good ecological status for surface waters is critical to this. According to countries’ second river basin management plans, good ecological status had been achieved for around 40% of surface waters (rivers, lakes and transitional and coastal waters) by 2015. However, these plans show only limited improvement in ecological status since the first plans were published in 2009, with ecological status remaining similar for most water bodies.
Indicator Assessment
09 Aug 2021
Ocean surface pH declined from 8.2 to below 8.1 over the industrial era as a result of an increase in atmospheric CO 2 concentrations. This decline corresponds to an increase in oceanic acidity of about 30%. Reductions in surface water pH are observed across the global ocean. Ocean acidification has impacts on marine organisms and has already affected the deep ocean, particularly at high latitudes. Models project further ocean acidification worldwide. The target under United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14.3 is to minimise the impacts of this by 2030.
Waste water treatment and reductions in nutrient losses from agriculture have led to significant
improvements in water quality in Europe. However, many of Europe’s freshwater bodies are still not
doing well and the condition of Europe’s seas is generally poor, partly because of pollution.
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