Jet discharges from industrial and domestic sources into shallow bodies of water is a common problem in engineering practice. At present, there is a significant lack of understanding of turbulence structure of shallow jets. The recent development of measurement techniques, like particle image velocimetry, has provided new possibilities for studying turbulence phenomena. This work provides extensive discussion of the behaviour of mean flow turbulence quantities of shallow water jets at three different degrees of shallowness. In addition, the vortical structures were exposed using the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) technique, and their properties were quantified using a vortex identification algorithm. This unique approach provided a deep understanding of the characteristics of the vortical structures in a shallow environment. This work should therefore be useful to scientists interested in turbulence phenomena, or professionals who working in mixing processes or considering designing devices of flows in a confined space.