Accredited official statistics

River water quality indicator

An annual update (until 2009) that measures chemical and biological river water quality. New indicator in development.

Applies to England

Documents

River Water Quality Indicator for Sustainable Development - 2009 annual results

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National Statistics for River Water Quality - forthcoming changes

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Biological and chemical river water quality

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Details

The measure has now been superceded by the surface water body status indicator in the England biodiversity indicators

The river water quality indicator is one of the 68 indicators of Sustainable Development. It separately measures biological and chemical river water quality on an annual basis The indicator for each represents the proportion of river water, in terms of river length, which is considered to be of “good” quality.

The EU Water Framework Directive has resulted in the need to change the way in which surface water quality is monitored. A classification based on number of surface water bodies classified under the Water Framework Directive in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland has been developed for the UK Biodiversity indicators.

This indicator - Surface water status (B7), can be found here

Next scheduled not applicable.

Defra statistics: environment

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Updates to this page

Published 7 September 2010

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