A water ring encoding method of processing an initial data set, such as an image frame, is disclosed having a writing step and an encoding step. The initial data set is organized with at least one initial origin enveloped by a plurality of nested initial environs successively surrounding each other in the initial data set. The writing step includes writing a portion of data from the initial data set into a scanned data string, by starting the writing of the portion of the data from the initial data set into the scanned data string at the RC grouping corresponding to the initial origin (initial water ring (0)) and by sequentially progressing the writing outwardly from the family of RC groupings corresponding to the nearest nested initial environ (initial water ring (1)) towards the family of RC groupings corresponding to a furthest nested initial environ (initial water ring (n)). The encoding step includes encoding the scanned data string into an encoded data string.