Box 5B How to read the maps

The maps in this section on groundwater (prepared by RIVM and RIZA) should not be taken as giving an assessment of the situation at the local or sub-regional scale. The degree of detail of geographically distributed input data varied greatly between countries, and was often available only for big regions within a country or for whole countries. Therefore, it is important to bear in mind that, where maps are presented in this chapter, they should be evaluated primarily on a European scale. The main purpose of the maps is to outline a particular feature (for example nitrate leaching) and to show the relative differences between countries. For bigger countries the maps can also be used to identify differences between parts of the country.