A main drain is a man-made stream in agricultural areas, which is used in drainage and who’s areas is less than threshold of a water body.  Main drains are content of “streams and main drains”- map layer in VIPU service, which is provided by Finnish Agency for Rural Affairs. In spring 2013 the stream network -data set, sustained by Finnish Environment Institute, was added to the VIPU service. The conflicts between data sets started discussion of main drain definition, and interpretation of water legislation.

The project aim is to provide definition of a main drain based on geometrical and functional criterion. In addition, goal is to survey different types of conflicts between data sets containing main drain information and their extent.

We use expert interviews and workshops as well as geospatial information and it’s as research methods.