The Role of GIS and Data Management in the Implementation of the Water Framework Directive in Ireland

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) is a directive of the European Parliament that entered into force in December 2000 and is applicable to all European Union (EU) Member States. It aims to establish a common approach to managing surface and ground water quality within the EU. The WFD is unique in that, unlike previous Directives, it explicitly recognises the locational or spatial dimensions of environmental features. The primary geographic unit for management and implementation of the WFD is the River Basin District (RBD) and information associated with each RBD is to be made “available for introduction into a GIS and/or the geographic information system of the Commission (GISCO)” * . In Ireland, the GIS data aspects of implementing the Water Framework Directive will require inputs from an array of national and local organisations. These organisation or stakeholders will act as both data providers and data customers. Many of the key WFD datasets will be dynamic, owing to the temporal nature of water quality and the central tenet of the Directive being the improvement of water quality status over time. The Directive will only succeed in the event of an aligned approach to data acquisition, management and dissemination among these stakeholders. This will necessitate a common national platform for data management of all datasets associated with the implementation of the WFD. This paper will outline some of the work being undertaken in Ireland in developing the core datasets and data management techniques necessary for WFD reporting.