This standard deals with the geographic representation of surface water systems. The standard defines concepts related to surface water systems. From the concepts, this standard creates a data structure with rules and content for information about surface water systems. The application schema deals with the following aspects of surface water:
— the surface water systems inherent hierarchical structure in various sub systems and levels
— how the surface water system may be represented on different levels of detail
— the surface water system as a correct flow network with described topology
— unique identities, phenomena identities, hydrological codes and some central attributes
— how updating of information is handled
— version handling
— how time validity may be given
— metadata, specifically quality
— geometries in several dimensions, reference systems
This standard supports reporting in conformance with the EC water directives, flow calculations and calculations of transport of dissolved substances in water.
This standard does not deal with classification of water according to their biological or limnological characteristics or to administrative division. Nor does this standard deal with division of water according to linguistic, dialectal or geographic variants, for instance mere, pool, brook, rivulet, stream, creek, river, stretch of water between rapids, or forms like bay, gulf, delta or similar.
This standard does not encompass technical utility systems, fairways, land or groundwater or water quality.