Identification

Title

Source Protection Zones [Merged]

Alternative title(s)

SPZ's

source_protection_zones_50k

SOURCE_PROTECTION_ZONES_50K

Abstract

Source Protection Zones [Merged] have been created as public facing boundaries where discrete groundwater bodies within Source Protection Zones (SPZ) have been dissolved on zone number where common boundaries and overlaps have been removed. SPZs are defined around large and public potable groundwater abstraction sites. The purpose of SPZs is to provide additional protection to safeguard drinking water quality through constraining the proximity of an activity that may impact upon a drinking water abstraction. This is part of an initial screening process in assessing impacts to groundwater resources. Zones around location sites are defined by groundwater travel time to an abstraction. This is determined through applying Environment Agency groundwater flow models run at the location of abstractions, inputting parameters such as flow direction, geology type, rainfall and hydrological boundaries. SPZs provide a visual representation of the increased risks as you get closer to the abstraction. The following subdivisions are defined within SPZs: Zone 1: (Inner Protection Zone) - This zone is defined by a travel time of 50-days or less from any point within the zone at, or below, the water table. Additionally, the zone has as a minimum a 50-metre radius. It is based principally on biological decay criteria and is designed to protect against the transmission of toxic chemicals and water-borne disease. Zone 2: (Outer Protection Zone) - This zone is defined by the 400-day travel time from a point below the water table. Additionally this zone has a minimum radius of 250 or 500 metres, depending on the size of the abstraction. The travel time is derived from consideration of the minimum time required to provide delay, dilution and attenuation of slowly degrading pollutants. Zone 3: (Total catchment) - This zone is defined as the total area needed to support the abstraction or discharge from the protected groundwater source. A further Zone 4, or ‘Zone of Special Interest’ was previously defined for some groundwater sources. These zones highlighted areas (mainly on non-aquifers) where known local conditions meant that potentially polluting activities could impact on a groundwater source even though the area is outside the normal catchment of that source. In future this zone will be incorporated into one of the other zones (1, 2 or 3), whichever is appropriate in the particular case. Attribution statement: © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2016. All rights reserved.

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://environment.data.gov.uk/DefraDataDownload/?mapService=EA/SourceProtectionZonesMerged&Mode=spatial

protocol: DSP:ESRI

description: Source Protection Zones (Merged) Download

https://environment.data.gov.uk/spatialdata/source-protection-zones-merged/wms

protocol: WMS

description: Source Protection Zones (Merged) WMS

https://environment.data.gov.uk/spatialdata/source-protection-zones-merged/wfs

protocol: WFS

description: Source Protection Zones (Merged) WFS

Unique resource identifier

code

DSTR04808

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/27700

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

environment

inlandWaters

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

groundwater

water resources management

aquifer

OpenData

originating controlled vocabulary

title

GEMET Thesaurus version 2.1

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-06-13

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-6.236

East bounding longitude

2.072

North bounding latitude

55.816

South bounding latitude

49.943

Extent

Extent group

authority code

code identifying the extent

http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/doc/country/england

Extent group

authority code

code identifying the extent

http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/doc/country/wales

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

1990-01-01

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

creation

effective date

1990-01-01

date type

revision

effective date

2018-10-31

Frequency of update

irregular

Quality and validity

Lineage

Large potable groundwater abstractions are extracted from the National Abstraction Licence Database (NALD) and georeferenced as Source Protection Locations. A groundwater flow model for relevant aquifer is run and classified into zones defined by travel time. Individual Source Protection Zones are merged and dissolved by Zone number stripping out SPZ name. This is for National Security reasons.

Conformity

Data format

name of format

Open format | Shapefile (SHP)

version of format

Not Applicable

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Open Government Licence

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the licence identified.

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

Environment Agency

email address

data.info@environment-agency.gov.uk

web address

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency

description: Environment Agency Website

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

Environment Agency

email address

data.info@environment-agency.gov.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2019-11-04

Metadata language

eng