- Report of the characterisation and impact analyses required by Article 5 in Northern Ireland

This report covers the characterisation of river basin districts of the planning cycle for river basin management. It involves a description of the natural characteristics of Northern Ireland waters and an assessment of the pressures and impacts. This will help to determine the monitoring we need to do and provides a starting point for the design of a programme of measures.

The main steps of characterisation are to:

• identify water bodies and their physical characteristics; 
• identify protected areas; 
• assess the pressures and impacts on rivers, lakes, transitional waters, coastal waters, groundwaters and wetlands. 
• provide a social and economic analysis of water uses