Most of the NIEA Water Management Unit spatial datasets
are now available on Open Data NI
Use of the Datasets
Key digital datasets held by the Department are available for download from this web page. This data can be used in Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The datasets that can be downloaded here are digital boundaries only - there is no background mapping. The digitising is based on Land & Property Services (LPS) / Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland (OSNI) maps(external link opens in a new window / tab) and they can supply vector and raster maps for background mapping for Northern Ireland.
By downloading and using these files, you agree to be bound by the
Digital Datasets Terms and Conditions.
File Formats
Free application ArcGIS Explorer is available for download from ESRI, the makers of ArcView; which allows these datasets to be viewed. The datasets are available as zipped shapefiles which is the file format used by ArcView. Shapefiles can be read by most GIS packages, look in the Help section of your software on how to import them.
Most of these datasets are also available in GML format. This is an open source format for geographical data and is specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium.
If you have problems reading these files, please contact waterinfo@daera-ni.gov.uk.
Zip Files
Zipping a file means that the file is compressed to a more manageable size, saving you time on downloads. The files will have to be unzipped before they can be used in a GIS package. WinZip compression software can be downloaded from their site.
Open Data NI
WMU aims to publish all of its key datasets to Open Data NI, which is updated regularly. Most of the datasets below (and more) can be found by searching within the ODNI site.
Water Management Unit Datasets
- Abstraction Point Hydrological Catchments (DWPA)
- Abstraction Licensing
- Agricultural Critical Risk Areas
- Coastal Interbasins
- Groundwater Digital Datasets
- Groundwater Karst Data
- Historical Landuse
- Industrial and Domestic Consents
- Lakes of Northern Ireland
- Lake Water Bodies
- Marine Water Bodies
- Northern Ireland Catchment Stakeholder Groups
- Northern Ireland Local Management Areas
- Northern Ireland River Segments
- Northern Ireland Transitional Waters (2009 - 2015)
- River Basin Districts
- River Network Contribution by Local Management Area
- Rivers Strahler Ranking
- River Water Quality Monitoring
- Surface Drinking Water Protected Areas
- Surface Water Bodies - Monitoring Sites
- Surface Water Bodies with Status - 2009 and 2015
- Surface Water Bodies Status 2015
- Water Framework Directive 2nd Cycle Interim Status
- WFD River and Lake Monitoring Sites 2nd Cycle
- WFD River Water Bodies 2nd Cycle
Natural Environment Division Datasets
Natural Environment Division (NED) also have a page of Natural Heritage Digital Datasets to download. Most of this data can also be found on Open Data NI published under the Natural Environment Division section.
DAERA Map Viewers
A number of water based map viewers including the Water Information Request Web Viewer and the NIEA Catchment Data Map Viewer are available on the DAERA Map Viewers page.