Nutrients Review 2023
On 1 April 2021, the Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2021 came into force. These regulations revoked and replaced the Nitrate Pollution Prevention (Wales) Regulations 2013. Their objective is to reduce the loss of pollutants from agriculture to the environment by establishing rules for certain farming practices.
Following the implementation of the new Regulations, and at the request of the Welsh Government (WG), Natural Resources Wales (NRW) appointed consultants, Arup, to undertake a review of nutrients in water bodies across Wales. The aim was to develop a national-scale understanding of baseline nutrient water quality and assess potential nutrient risks. The review covers both nitrate and phosphate, which are considered the key nutrients contributing to poor water quality.
The review assessed the following water body types across Wales:
Groundwater
Surface waters (rivers)
Lakes
Transitional and Coastal (TraC) waters
The methodology used in the review broadly followed that applied during the 2017 NVZ review (NRW_DS116240), but was adapted to incorporate the assessment of phosphate. The methodologies provide a consistent and practical approach to identifying potentially polluted waters across Wales.
- Identification
- Extent
- Distribution
- Quality
- Keywords
- Spatial Reference System
- Content
- Constraints
- Maintenance
- Metadata
Identification
- Identifier
- NRW_DS125601
- Metadata Language
- English
- Lineage
-
The methods used in this review largely follow the 2016 NVZ methodology. This approach was adopted to enable comparison of the results with previous assessments of waters polluted by nutrients from agricultural sources. However, there are several key differences, including:
Phosphorus has been included alongside nitrogen. This provides a more comprehensive understanding of the potential impacts of nutrients on water quality, as both nutrients play important roles in the nutrient cycle and should be considered when identifying measures to reduce nutrient inputs to water bodies.
Modelling has combined both agricultural and urban land use, whereas previous reviews assessed these separately. Land use types and individual nutrient inputs can still be viewed separately within the spatial layers of the dashboard.
A greater range of land use types has been included. Previous reviews used a maximum of five land use categories, whereas this review incorporates 17.
The same apportionment methodology has been applied across all water body types, whereas different methods were used in previous reviews.
Due to anomalous nutrient results affecting some water quality monitoring data, orthophosphate and total oxidised nitrogen (TON) data from 2014 to 2016 have been excluded from this review.
- Dataset Reference Date (Publication)
- 2024-06-01
Temporal Extent
- Begin date
- 2023-01-01 After
- End date
- 2023-12-31 Before
- Topic category
-
- Environment
Extent
Extent
- Geographic Extent
- Wales (WLS)
))
Distribution
- Format Type and Description
-
-
Geographic Information System
(
)
- Specification
-
ESRI Feature Class
-
Geographic Information System
(
)
Quality
Data quality
- Quality Scope
- Dataset
- Conformity
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services
- Explanation
-
This dataset has not been assessed for conformance to the referenced INSPIRE regulation.
- Degree
- false
- Lineage
-
The methods used in this review largely follow the 2016 NVZ methodology. This approach was adopted to enable comparison of the results with previous assessments of waters polluted by nutrients from agricultural sources. However, there are several key differences, including:
Phosphorus has been included alongside nitrogen. This provides a more comprehensive understanding of the potential impacts of nutrients on water quality, as both nutrients play important roles in the nutrient cycle and should be considered when identifying measures to reduce nutrient inputs to water bodies.
Modelling has combined both agricultural and urban land use, whereas previous reviews assessed these separately. Land use types and individual nutrient inputs can still be viewed separately within the spatial layers of the dashboard.
A greater range of land use types has been included. Previous reviews used a maximum of five land use categories, whereas this review incorporates 17.
The same apportionment methodology has been applied across all water body types, whereas different methods were used in previous reviews.
Due to anomalous nutrient results affecting some water quality monitoring data, orthophosphate and total oxidised nitrogen (TON) data from 2014 to 2016 have been excluded from this review.
Keywords
Keywords
- Type
- Theme
Citation
- Date (Publication)
- 2008-06-01
Keywords
-
NRW Thesaurus
-
- nitrates (nitrogen)
- phosphates
- nutrients
- phosphorus
- nutrient pollution
- Nitrate directive
- Type
- Theme
Citation
- Date (Publication)
- 2026-08-27
Spatial Reference System
Content
Content Information
NRW Profile
Custom Elements
Constraints
Constraints
Limitations on Public Access and Use
- Restriction type
- Other restrictions
Access Constraints Directive
- Limitations
- no limitations
Access Constraints Text
- Other constraints
-
There are no access restrictions on this data. NRW may release, publish or disseminate it freely
Use Constraints
- Use constraints type
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
-
© CNC/NRW Data may be re-used under the terms of the Open Government Licence providing it is done so, acknowledging both the source and NRW's copyright. It is the recipient's responsibility to ensure the data is fit for the intended purpose.
Attribution Statement
- Other constraints
-
Contains Natural Resources Wales information © Natural Resources Wales and Database Right. All rights Reserved
Licence
- Other constraints
- Open Government Licence
Metadata
Metadata
- File Identifier
- 4f4c4942-4343-5764-6473-313235363031 XML
- Metadata Language
- English
- Resource type
- Dataset
- Metadata Date
- 2026-10-02T09:08:27.929Z
- Metadata Standard Name
- NRW
- Metadata Standard Version
-
1.0