The pressure layer was created using three different datasets rasterized using the EEA 10 km grid: urban agglomerations reported under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (2017), EMODnet dataset of ports lying on the sea coast together with passenger information (annual average 2006-2016) and Intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli data at bathing sites as measured under the Bathing Water Directive reporting obligation (average 2008-2016). All three datasets were then classified into four classes, aggregated and classified again (quantile classes between 0 and 1, with the latter being the highest pathogen pressure).

This dataset has been prepared for the calculation of the combined effect index, produced for the ETC/ICM Report 4/2019 "Multiple pressures and their combined effects in Europe's seas" available on: https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-icm/etc-icm-report-4-2019-multiple-pressures-and-their-combined-effects-in-europes-seas-1.