EMODnet Human Activities, Environment, Status of Bathing Water

The dataset on the status of bathing waters in the European seas was created in 2015 by Cogea for the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet). It is based on the 'Bathing Water' Directive 2006/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 February 2006 concerning the management of bathing water quality and repealing Directive 76/160/EEC. It is available for viewing and download on EMODnet web portal (Human Activities, https://emodnet.ec.europa.eu/en/human-activities). The Bathing Water Directive requires 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. The purpose of the Directive is to protect human health and the environment while ensuring safe bathing water quality through provisions for monitoring, classification and management of bathing water quality, as well as for public information on such quality. More information are available at https://rod.eionet.europa.eu/obligations/787. The dataset presents information on bathing water identifier and name, country code and name, latitude and longitude of sites, specialized zone type (coastal, lake, river, transitional), link to the bathing water website page, bathing water quality status (0 - Not classified, 1 - Excellent, 2 - Good, 3 - Good or Sufficient, 3 - Sufficient, 4 - Poor, Closed, Insufficiently Sampled), year (1990-2025, where available). Only coastal and transitional bathing waters are shown on the EMODnet map viewer, while the dataset also contains lake and river ones. Geographic coverage: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (England, Gibraltar, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales). Classifications were not made for some of the UK sites for the 2020 season due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sampling programme. Compared with the previous version, the dataset has been updated according to the latest version published by the resource providers in the 2024 and 2025.