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2.4.1.      River water bodies

Europe has an extensive network of rivers and streams. In total more than 85 000 river water bodies with a length greater than one million kilometre has been reported by Member States. Four countries, Sweden, France, UK and Germany, reported more than half of the river water bodies, while three countries, France, Germany and the UK accounted for nearly half of the river length (Table 2.6).

The average size of the more than 85 000 reported river water bodies is 11.8 km long. Four Member States had river water bodies more than the double size the EU average and Latvia and Bulgaria had river water bodies longer than 30 km, and The Netherlands and Romania had river water bodies longer than 25 km. Austria, Ireland and Sweden had relative small river water bodies average length less than 5 km and less than half the EU average. If a Member State report relative large river water bodies for example it may have several river water bodies longer than 50 km, it may be difficult to characterize the status (e.g. sections may have different status). 

The same river can contain different water bodies, since the status of the water may change. The diagram below applies to a river with high-quality water at its source, which gradually becomes more polluted downstream.

Member States like Ireland and Austria have a three to four times higher density of river water bodies than the EU average of around 23 river water bodies per 1000 km² of the Member State territory. Five countries have a relative higher river length (length per 1000 km²) than the EU average. Some countries like Latvia, Finland, The Netherlands, Greece and Spain have a lower density of river water bodies (rWBs per km²) and river length (river length per km²) than the EU average. If a Member State has a low coverage of the rivers in a country, the characterization of status and pressures may not be fully representative for the rivers in the Member State.