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WFD Visual expansion site: storyboards

WFD Visual is a Water Framework Directive Visualisation tool.

The images produced under WFDVisual represent a partnership between Sniffer (then SNIFFER, Scotland and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research), the Environment Agency (then for England and Wales), the Environmental Protection Agency (for Ireland), Northern Ireland Environment Agency, Geological Survey Ireland and the British Geological Survey.

Phase 1 (published May 2007): In 2004, SNIFFER - on behalf of the Environment Agency (EA) and Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) - initiated a project to develop a package of images to visually represent groundwater and its management under the WFD (Water Framework Directive). This was undertaken within the SNIFFER project WFD32, which commissioned Entec to develop the base images under direction from EA and GSI. The base images were used by GSI to generate multiple images representing:

  • An upland to coastal landscape shown in 3D, encompassing multiple groundwater bodies and surface water catchments, and showing elements of the hydrological cycle.
  • Two-dimensional close-ups of Upland Rural, Lowland Rural and Urban settings. Different geologies and hydrogeologies typical of UK and Ireland, and land use pressures associated with these settings, are captured in a series of images. There are more than 1,000 images that capture different permutations of landscape setting, land use pressure and geology/hydrogeology.

Phase 2 (published October 2009): Following the success of the WFDVisual images, SNIFFER - on behalf of EA, EPA, GSI and SEPA - commissioned work to develop additional images to add to the WFDVisual collection (project WFD70c). More than 70 images were created by Freeman Christie under the direction of the Environment Agencies and Geological Surveys.

  • The images are presented below in a series of storyboards that help to explain groundwater processes in floodplain, coastal, karst and fluvial settings.
  • There is text accompanying the groups of images that help to explain the story, which can be downloaded as a zip file.