Proposal:Beach and bathing water quality
This is a new proposal based on the rejected Proposed Features/Blue flag
| Award | |
|---|---|
| Proposal status: | Abandoned (inactive) |
| Proposed by: | Johan Jönsson |
| Tagging: | award:blue_flag=yes |
| Applies to: |  ,  ,  , 
|
| Definition: | To show that a beach has earned the blue_flag or that it is rated in the EU bathing water system or by nrdc. |
| Statistics: |
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| Draft started: | 2012-08-20 |
| RFC start: | 2012-08-26 |
Proposal
To show that a bathing area have a good bathing water quality and that it is rated in a specific system. This is a secondary tag put on existing tagged nodes, leisure=beach, leisure=beach_resort.
Instead of using a general tag for bathing water quality, the proposal is to use the award-systems already in use in some parts of the world.
New Proposal
water:quality=*
Values:
- no_bath / bath
- poor/sufficent/good/excellent
The values could be associated with minimum requirements on amount of particles/pollution/bacteria. These should be choosen to coincide with at least one major rating system. Bacteria could be the fecal indicator bacteria: Intestinal enterococci and E-Coli.
good : Intestinal enterococci < 100 per 100 ml OR E-Coli <100 per 100 ml
sufficient: Intestinal enterococci > 100 per 100 ml OR E-Coli >100 per 100 ml
poor: Intestinal enterococci > 300 per 100 ml OR E-Coli >1000 per 100 ml
(Based on swedish regulation http://badplatsen.smittskyddsinstitutet.se/help/help_public_vattenkvalitet.htm )
Drinking water
This could be expanded to also be used for drinking water:
Values:
- drinkable
- poor/sufficent/good/excellent //this complicates things a bit.
Water quality monitoring
To become an EU bath the water quality have to be monitored at least three times during a bathing season. To earn the blue flag award, five times per season. water:quality:monitoring=yes/three/EU/five/blue_flag or award:eu-bath=yes / award:blue_flag=yes or classification:eu-bath=yes member:blue_flag=yes
Rationale
Bathing areas with an award have been found to hold a certain level of service and quality. These places should be in a travellers interest to find. It could also be of interest to avoid places with bad quality of the water but that is not the main scope of the proposal.
Examples
- Varazze - Ponente Teiro, Beach a multipolygon-type relation
- It got excellent bathing water according to EU and a blue flag.
- award:eu_bath=3stars
- award:blue_flag=yes
- Barcelona - Playa del Barceloneta a multipolygon-type relation
- It got excellent bathing water according to EU and a blue flag.
- award:eu_bath=3stars
- award:blue_flag=yes
Tagging
Added to existing features, leisure=beach, leisure=beach_resort, describing the award or rating. A good practice is to tag what you can see.
- award:blue_flag=yes tagged on features that fly the blue flag. It could be good to double-check it on the site too.
- award:eu_bath=3stars/2stars/1star/0star tagged on features that display a sign with the water quality, given as a rating in stars. It could be good to double-check it on the site too.
- award:nrdc=5stars/4stars/3stars/2stars/1star I´m not sure if this is visible as some kind of sign or notice on the beach.
about the key
The key award is used as a prefix, or a top-level key, or as a name-space. It is supposed to be used together with the award-system forming the combined key award:<award_system>. For award systems that have only one award one could consider something like award=blue_flag, but for rating systems that uses more common units it is not advicable to use e.g. award=3stars, better then to expand the key to award:eu_bath=3stars.
Explanation
European Union Bathing Water Classification
According to the 2006 bathing water directive all member states of the European Union are obliged to identify all bathing areas and classify them. It is up to each nation to set the limit of how big or frequented a bathing area is to be counted as an european bathing water. The quality bathing water must be supervised and the quality be posted visible to the visitors.
In 2011 there were 22000 EU bathing sites. [1]
Blue flag
A beach can be awarded the blue flag if the municipality apply and then passes the evaluation by a jury.
The Blue Flag Programme is run by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), with national organizations in 46 countries across Europe, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada and the Caribbean. Only bathing places in these countries can be awarded.
Blue flag beaches must have a good supervised water quality and a certain level of safety and services. There is also requirements on an environmental awareness of the operators that shall reflect on the management of the beach.
http://www.blueflag.org. See also blue flag beach on wikipedia.
NRDC
The Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) is an environmental organization that among other things rates popular beaches in USA, based on the bathing water quality. The star system awards up to five stars to each popular beach for exceptionally low violation of quality-levels and strong testing and safety practices. Criteria include testing more than once a week, notifying the public promptly when tests reveal bacteria levels violating health standards, and posting closings and advisories both online and at the beach.
NRDC issued star ratings to 200 popular beaches around the country 2012. http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/ttw/beach-ratings.asp
NRDC might have other awards, so using the key award:NRDC might mean different things depending on what feature is tagged. E.g. the Going Green Award.
Meaning of the ratings
| AWARD_TYPE | VALUE |
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award:blue_flag
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award:eu_bath
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award:nrdc
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See also
- previous version of this proposal i archived
- There already exists an widely used scheme for tagging hotel ratings with stars, stars=*.
- The subject of these tags could be associated with leisure=*, tourism=*.
- Previous Proposed Features/Blue flag
- New Proposed features/Awards and ratings