1 European Topic Centre on Water Workshop on: Identification of surface water bodies under the...

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European Topic Centre on Water

Workshop on: Identification of surface water bodies under the Pilot River Basin Initiative

Monitoring Water BodiesSteve Nixon,

European Environment Agency, European Topic Centre on Water

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Structure of presentation- Monitoring

• Scope and types• Objectives• Where

– Small water bodies– Grouping

• What• When

– Confidence and precision

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SCG WG2.7: Develop Guidance on Monitoring

• Working group co-led by Italy and EEA• Final version of guidance approved by

Water Directors in November 2002• Close links with guidance on Water Bodies,

REFCOND, COAST and Intercalibration• Proposes a pragmatic and flexible approach

to monitoring reflecting the diversity of circumstances within Europe

• However, adaptations must be justified and transparent

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Article 8 – Monitoring

• for surface water status, groundwater status and protected areas.

• to establish a coherent and comprehensive overview of water status within each river basin district

• (and permit classification of all surface water bodies)

• operational by 22 December 2006, and • in accordance with the requirements of Annex V

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Monitoring – general principles

• Does not mean that monitoring stations will be needed in each and every water body

• However Member States will have to ensure that enough individual water bodies of each water body type are monitored to obtain an overview of status

• Also have to determine how many stations are required in each individual water body to determine its water status

• Overview of water status should have acceptable level of confidence and precision

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Monitoring – general principles

• The individual water bodies selected may vary according to the objectives of the monitoring programme

• More water bodies might have to be monitored in a heterogeneous River Basin District in terms of water body types and pressures than in more homogeneous River Basin District

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Types of surface water monitoring defined in Annex V

• Surveillance• Operational• Investigative• Protected Areas

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Surveillance monitoring of surface waters - objectives

• Supplementing and validating the impact assessment procedure detailed in Annex II

• The efficient and effective design of future monitoring programmes

• The assessment of long term changes in natural conditions and those resulting from widespread anthropogenic activity

• Undertaken for at least a period of one year during the period of a RBMP

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Surveillance monitoring of surface waters - timing

• Operational by 22 December 2006• First results for first draft RBMP - end 2008• RBMP finalised by end of 2009• Article 5/Annex II characterisation/risk

assessment by 22 December 2004• Thus no surveillance data will be available

for first risk assessment• Existing data should be used in first risk

assessment

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Operational monitoring of surface waters - objectives

• Establish the status of those bodies identified as being at risk of failing to meet their environmental objectives

• Assess any changes in the status of such bodies resulting from the programmes of measures

• Will produce EQRs for status classification of water bodies included in operational monitoring

• For those water bodies not included in operational monitoring - EQRs based on surveillance monitoring

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Investigative monitoring of surface waters - objectives

• to ascertain the causes of a water body or water bodies failing to achieve the environmental objectives; or

• to ascertain the magnitude and impacts of accidental pollution.

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Monitoring information also required for:

• Estimating pollutants loads - transboundary and into seas

• Intercalibration exercise• Assessing compliance with standards and

objectives of Protected Areas • Quantifying reference conditions where they

exist

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Where to monitor - surface water surveillance monitoring

• In sufficient water bodies to provide an assessment of the overall surface water status within each catchment and sub-catchment within the river basin district

• Also dependent on confidence in Annex II risk assessments– High confidence, less monitoring– Low confidence, more monitoring

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Where to monitor - surface water surveillance monitoring

May initially need to be more extensive in terms of:

• numbers of water bodies included,• monitoring stations within bodies and • indicators of the quality elements because of

– probable lack of appropriate existing monitoring data

– different/new range of elements/pressures to be monitored

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Monitoring should also be carried out at points where:

• Volume and rate of water flow is significant within RBD including large rivers (>2500 km2 catchment area) and large lakes and reservoirs

• Significant national transboundary water • Exchange of Information Decision sites

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Where to monitor - surface water operational monitoring

• For all water bodies identified as being at risk of failing EOs

• For all water bodies into which priority substances are discharged

• Not necessarily in ALL such bodies as grouping of water bodies allowed

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Where to monitor - surface water operational monitoring

• Number of monitoring stations needs to be sufficient to assess the magnitude and impact of significant point source, diffuse source and hydromorphological pressures

• More than one station per water body may be required to do this

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Where to monitor - surface water monitoring

• Covers all waters up to one sea mile – ecological and chemical status (chemical status also territorial waters)

• System A typology (rivers with catchment areas of ~ 10 km2 and lakes with surface areas of ~ 0.5 km2) should not be seen as a size threshold for management and monitoring

• Smaller water bodies can be included (e.g. Odense PRB)

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Water Body guidance

Member States have flexibility to decide whether the purposes of the Directive, which apply to all surface waters, can be achieved without the identification of every minor but discrete and significant element of surface water as a water body.

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Why it is important to monitor/assess small water bodies

• Ecologically important – e.g. fish spawning in river headwaters

• Important in terms of biodiversity• Will monitoring/assessing just the most

downstream points of a large river (e.g. where catchments >2500 km2) ensure that upstream parts of the river catchment are of the same (good) status?

• Anthropogenic impacts can be greater in small water bodies

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Water Body guidance

A discrete element of surface water should not contain significant elements of different status. A “water body” must be capable of being assigned to a single ecological status class with sufficient confidence and precision through the Directive’s monitoring programmes.

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Identification of water bodies according to differences in status

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Orthophosphate concentrations in different sized rivers

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

µg P

/l

<5050 to 250250 to 10001000 to 2500>2500

Catchment area (km2)

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Size of water body

• In practice MSs will determine size of water body included in monitoring programmes

• Depend on natural and anthropogenic characteristics of each RBD

• And attainment of objective to obtain a coherent and comprehensive over of water status in each RBD

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Estimated number of lakes in Europe

Surface area (km2)

Total in Europe

Finland Sweden

>0.01 600,000 56,032 83,244

>0.1 100,000 15,723 23,744

>1 16,000 2,609 4,370

>10 2,000 326 380

>100 174 47 22

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Number of monitored river catchments in England and Wales

2635

8965

4296

1514513

70

100020003000400050006000700080009000

10000

<10 km2 10 to<100km2

100 to<1000km2

1000 to<10000

km2

>10000km2

Total

Num

ber o

f sta

tions

~ 1 station per 5km river length

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Key Principle Grouping water bodies

• Surface water bodies may be grouped for monitoring purposes where monitoring sufficient indicative or representative water bodies in the sub-groups of surface water bodies provides for an acceptable level of confidence and precision in the results of monitoring, and in particular the classification of water body status.

• Same type (sensitivity), subject to same type and magnitude of pressure(s) (implies same status)

• Grouping must be technically or scientifically justifiable

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Grouping water bodies

• A (statistically) representative sub sample to provide an accurate assessment of status for that group

• Example, Nordic lake acidification status survey

• Results from a few lakes extrapolated to the total population of lakes

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What to monitor - surface water

Surveillance• Parameters indicative

of all biological, hydromorphological and general physico-chemical quality elements

• Priority List substances if discharged in RB

• Other pollutants if discharged in significant quantities

Operational• Parameters indicative

of those biological and hydromorphological quality elements most sensitive to the pressures to which the body(ies) are subject

• Only priority substances and other pollutants (including nutrients) that might cause failure of EOs

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Frequency of monitoring surface waters

• Member States can tailor monitoring frequencies according to conditions and variability within their own waters

• Frequencies shall be chosen so as to achieve an acceptable level of confidence and precision in assessing a water body’s status.

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Frequency of monitoring surface waters

• Annex V provides tabulated guidelines in terms of the minimum monitoring frequencies for all the quality elements

• Minimum frequencies may not be adequate to achieve an acceptable level of confidence and precision in detecting long term changes

• Greater intervals may be justifiable on the basis of technical knowledge and expert judgement.

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Key Principle

“The actual precision and confidence levels achieved should enable meaningful assessments of status in time and space to be made. Member States will have to quote these levels in RBMPs and will thus be open to scrutiny and comment by others. This should serve to highlight any obvious deficiencies or inadequacies in the future.”

• Thus classification, assessments and decisions should be transparent to all stakeholders in RBD

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