Environment Agency
This guidance is for activities in the marine environment up to 1 nautical mile out to sea.
Many activities need approval before they can go ahead. You must provide a Water Framework Directive (WFD) assessment as part of your application to the public body that regulates and grants permissions for your activity.
A WFD assessment helps you and your regulator understand:
- the impact your activity may have on the immediate water body and any linked water bodies
- whether your activity complies with the River basin management plans: updated 2022
Every water body has a status. The current status is set out in the RBMPs: updated 2022. Its based on the condition of different quality elements in the water body, for example biology.
The WFD aim is for all water bodies to be at good status. In a WFD assessment you must show if your activity will:
- cause or contribute to deterioration of status
- jeopardise the water body achieving good status
This guidance updates and replaces Clearing the Waters, the previous WFD guidance for dredging and disposal activities in estuarine and coastal waters.
Carry out your WFD assessment in stages
A WFD assessment can have up to 3 stages. You may not need to complete all stages, depending on what you find at each stage. The stages are:
- screening excludes any activities that do not need to go through the scoping or impact assessment stages
- scoping identifies the receptors that are potentially at risk from your activity and need impact assessment
- impact assessment considers the potential impacts of your activity, identifies ways to avoid or minimise impacts, and shows if your activity may cause deterioration or jeopardise the water body achieving good status
In your WFD assessment you should consider:
- all activities youll carry out
- each stage of the activity, for example construction, operation and decommissioning
- the water body your activity is in and all water bodies you could affect
Use catchment data explorer to find out which water body your activity is in and other linked water bodies it could affect.
Screening: exclude activities from scoping
You do not need to carry out scoping if your activity is low risk. Your activity is low risk if its:
- a self-service marine licence activity or an accelerated marine licence activity that meets specific conditions
- maintaining pumps at pumping stations if you do it regularly, avoid low dissolved oxygen levels during maintenance and minimise silt movement when restarting the pumps
- removing blockages or obstacles like litter or debris within 10m of an existing structure to maintain flow
- replacing or removing existing pipes, cables or services crossing over a water body but not including any new structure or supports, or new bed or bank reinforcement
- over water replacement or repairs to, for example bridge, pier and jetty surfaces if you minimise bank or bed disturbance
If you carried out your activity during 2015 to 2022 and you have a WFD assessment, do not repeat it unless:
- youve since changed how you carry out that activity, including method, size or scale, volume, depth, location or timings
- theres been a pollution incident since your activity was last carried out
Scoping: identify risks to receptors
At the scoping stage you must identify all your activitys potential risks to each receptor. The receptors are:
- hydromorphology
- biology habitats
- biology fish
- water quality
- protected areas
These receptors are based on the water bodys quality elements.
You must also consider invasive non-native species (INNS) at the scoping stage.
Scoping template
The can help you record your findings. If you use it, send a copy to your regulator as part of your WFD assessment.
Hydromorphology
Hydromorphology is the physical characteristics of estuaries and coasts. It includes the size, shape and structure of the water body, and the flow and quantity of water and sediment.
Include hydromorphology in your impact assessment if your activity could have:
- an impact on the hydromorphology of a water body at high status
- a significant impact on the hydromorphology of any water body
Impacts on hydromorphology include changes to:
- morphological conditions, for example depth variation, the seabed and intertidal zone structure
- tidal patterns, for example dominant currents, freshwater flow and wave exposure
Use the to check the hydromorphology status of your water body.
Also include hydromorphology in your impact assessment if the water body is heavily modified for the same use as your activity.
Use the to find out if a water body is classed as heavily modified and for what use.
Biology: habitats
Include habitats in your impact assessment if the footprint of your activity is any of the following:
- 0.5km or larger
- 1% or more of the water bodys area
- within 500m of any higher sensitivity habitat
- 1% or more of any lower sensitivity habitat
A footprint may be a temperature or sediment plume.
For dredging, calculate the footprint as 1.5 times the dredge area.
For WFD assessment purposes, higher sensitivity habitats are:
- chalk reef
- clam, cockle and oyster beds
- intertidal seagrass
- maerl
- mussel beds, including blue and horse mussel
- polychaete reef
- saltmarsh
- subtidal kelp beds
- subtidal seagrass
Lower sensitivity habitats are:
- cobbles, gravel and shingle
- intertidal soft sediments like sand and mud
- rocky shore
- subtidal boulder fields
- subtidal rocky reef
- subtidal soft sediments
Use the and Magic maps to find information on the location and size of WFD habitats. Read the Magic D16 Clearing the Waters for All user guide if you need help using the habitat maps. You should also use other sources of habitat information if available.
Biology: fish
You only need to consider fish if your activity:
- is in an estuary and could affect fish in the estuary