dataset · England
Bathing Waters Monitoring Locations
The Environment Agency collects and analyses water samples each year from May to September, to ensure that designated bathing water sites on the coast and inland are safe and clean for swimming and other activities. This shape file shows the approximate locations of our monitoring sites and the compliance or classification for each bathing water in England from 1988 to present. It is updated twice a year, to revise the inventory, and the assessment results. For coastal waters the specific locati
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Licence: ["There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the licence identified.", "There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the
Evidence quality: 54.5
Listed in data.gov.uk public catalogue API on 2026-10-16; relevance/value screened (haiku).
Metadata checked: 2026-10-14T13:20:00.000Z
What's in it
- Data offered docs-verified
- bathing water monitoring site locations · bathing water compliance/classification per site
- Coverage docs-verified
- England · 1988 to present
- Resolution docs-verified
- Approximate site locations; coastal monitoring positions vary along a transect with the tides; results assessed as annual classifications
- Update frequency docs-verified
- Biannual (twice a year)
- Formats docs-verified
- Shapefile (ZIP) · GeoPackage (ZIP) · GeoJSON (ZIP) · File Geodatabase (ZIP) · OGC API · WMS · WFS · LYR
- Access docs-verified
- Free and open under the Open Government Licence; no public access constraints; no authentication listed in metadata
Useful for
- Use cases llm-inferred
- Screening bathing water constraints for coastal or riverside outfall and drainage discharge proposals · Mapping bathing water sites against development, flood-risk or EIA study areas in GIS · Building water quality context for planning and environmental baseline reports in England
- Audience llm-inferred
- environmental consultants · GIS analysts · drainage engineers · planners · water quality specialists
Limitations
- Constraints llm-inferred
- Site locations are approximate, not survey-grade · Coastal monitoring positions shift with the tides · Sampling covers May to September only, so there is no year-round data · Classifications are annual and not real-time · Covers England only
Evidence
- https://environment.data.gov.uk/api/file/download?fileDataSetId=0cf145dd-4cb3-48b2-8ae4-fa5390b90431&fileName=Bathing_Waters_Monitoring_Locations.gdb.zip
- https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/dcb8bd46-c4cf-4749-bad0-7663da96845c/bathing-waters-monitoring-locations
Check upstream coverage, uncertainty and licence before use. Station observations are not forecasts or design levels.