Main rivers

Screen

Stages

• Backlog
• Screen
• Research

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These are the questions we answer during the Screen stage.

Answering them wil help us learn more about the Main rivers consideration, determine if a data standard is required and whether we know enough to move on to the next stage.

• What is the 'Main rivers' consideration?

  Main Rivers are a legal designation relating to watercourses.

  Main rivers are usually larger rivers and streams. They are designated as such, and shown on the Main River Map. The Environment Agency carries out maintenance, improvement or construction work on main rivers to manage flood risk. Other rivers are called ‘ordinary watercourses’. Lead local flood authorities, district councils and internal drainage boards carry out flood risk management work on ordinary watercourses.

• Is there legislation that defines 'Main rivers'?

  Yes

  • What is the legislation that defines 'Main rivers'?

    Water Resources Act 1991

  • What is the specific part of the legislation that describes how a 'Main rivers' gets designated?

    Guidance under S193E outlines how Environment Agency designates Main River

  • What is the specific part of the legislation that requires the publication of 'Main rivers'?

    The Water Resources Act 1991, Section 193A states that "The Agency must provide reasonable facilities for inspecting the main river map for England in electronic form."

• Who, in law, is responsible for the planning consideration or makes decisions about 'Main rivers'?

  The Environment Agency

• Which organisations do we think should publish the data?

  • Environment Agency

• Is the Main rivers a trigger?

  No

• Is the Main rivers something to consult during plan making?

  Yes

  • Provide information about when Main rivers is used during plan making

    The main rivers dataset will be consulted during plan-making and decision making in planning.

• Is there any Main rivers data already available?

  Yes

  • What Main rivers data is currently available?

    • Item 1

      • Delete
      • Edit
      • url: https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/4ae8ba46-f9a4-47d0-8d93-0f93eb494540/statutory-main-river-map
      • name: The Statutory Main River Map
      • licence: OGL version 3
      • coverage: England
      • publisher: The Environment Agency
      • attribution: Attribution statement: © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right (2023)
      • metadata_url: https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/4ae8ba46-f9a4-47d0-8d93-0f93eb494540/statutory-main-river-map

• Do we think the data should come from a single source?

  The Environment Agency

• Will a data standard be required?

  No