Water.europa.eu Fish migration from a Water Framework Directive perspective Launch of the Living North Sea Project 26 March 2010, Ghent Dr. Ursula Schmedtje

water.europa.euwater.europa.eu

Fish migration from a Water Framework Directive perspective

Launch of the Living North Sea Project 26 March 2010, Ghent

Dr. Ursula Schmedtje

DG Environment, European Commission


Outline

• WFD principles and main objectives

• Ecological status – fish fauna as biological quality

element

• WFD and hydromorphology – importance for fish

migration


Main WFD objectives

water.europa.euwater.europa.euSlide 4

WFD – general principles

• Protecting all water bodies, including transitional waters and coastal waters.

• Covering all impacts on waters.• Achievement of good status in all water bodies and no

deterioration of status.• Good status:

– Ecological status– Chemical status– Quantitative status

• Water quality defined in terms of biology, chemistry and morphology

• Attention paid to socio-economic impacts, e.g. through a process of duly justified exemptions


Diversity of uses, aspirations, pressures and impacts

Nature protection

Industry

Tourism

Waste Water

Agriculture

Navigation & hydropower

Drinking water

Flood protection


Transposition into national law Dec 2003Administrative arrangements Dec 2003Environmental analysis:

Analysis of characteristicsAssessment of human impacts

Economic analysis of water use Dec 2004 Monitoring programmes Dec 2006Public Participation starts Dec 2006Significant water management issuesDec 2007Draft river basin management plans Dec 2008Final river basin management plans Dec 2009Measures to be applicable at the latest Dec 2012Implementation, adjustment 2015 till 2027

WFD Timetable


Principles1 - flexibility in WFD objective setting

2 - integration with other policies

3 - consider a wide range of measures

4 - transparency in decision making

5 - 6 year cyclic approach

River Basin Management Plans


Ecological status


Ecological Status

Definition:

“an expression of the quality of the structure and

functioning of aquatic ecosystems associated with

surface waters”.


WFD environmental objectives

• Prevention of deterioration of the ecological and chemical status of all bodies of surface water

• Achievement of good surface water status of all European lakes, rivers, and coastal/transitional waters by 2015


Quality ElementsExample: rivers

• Biological elements (new!)

• Composition and abundance of phytoplankton

• Composition and abundance of macrophytes and phytobenthos

• Composition and abundance of benthic invertebrate fauna

• Composition, abundance and age structure of fish fauna

• Hydromorphological elements (new!)

• Hydrological regime

• River continuity

• Morphological conditions (including riparian zone)

• Chemical and physico-chemical elements

• General (oxygenation, nutrients, salinity, etc)

• Specific pollutants (synthetic and non-synthetic)


Fish fauna

Water categoriesRivers – lakes – transitional waters (not in coastal waters)

Normative definitions (example: transitional waters) • High status

– Species composition and abundance is consistent with undisturbed conditions

• Good status

– The composition and abundance of the disturbance-sensitive species shows

slight signs of distortion from type-specific conditions attributable to

anthropogenic impacts on physico-chemical or hydromorophological quality

elements.

• Moderate status

– A moderate proportion of the type-specific disturbance-sensitive species are

absent as a result of anthropogenic impacts on physicochemical or

hydromorphological quality elements.

HIGHHIGH

GOODGOOD

MODERATEMODERATE

POORPOOR

BADBAD

Classes

No orminimal

{

Slight {

Moderate {

Major {

Severe {

No

n-d

ete

riora

tion

Re

sto

ratio

n

Courtesy Peter Pollard, Scottish Environment Protection Agency

Ecological Status


What is intercalibration?

• Legal obligation to harmonise the understanding of "good

ecological status" across 27 Member States

HIGHHIGH

GOODGOOD

MODERATEMODERATE

POORPOOR

BADBAD

• Harmonise the result of national assessment systems (not the

methods) to be comparable and consistent with the normative

definitions

• Commission facilitates the exercise and publishes the results


WFD and hydromorphology


Drivers for hydromorphological pressures

0

5

10

15

20

25EU

25

Pressures on EU waters


Heavily modified water bodies

• In case changes to the hydromorphological characteristics of that body which would be necessary for achieving good ecological status would have significant adverse effects on (e.g.) power generation, and

• In case the beneficial objectives served by the artificial or modified characteristics of the water body cannot, for reasons of technical feasibility or disproportionate costs, reasonably be achieved by other means, which are a significantly better environmental option:

A water body can be designated as heavily modified and good ecological potential can be achieved instead of GES.


Exemptions

• Time derogation (art 4.4)• Phased implementation to 2021 or even 2027 depending on

technical feasibility and disproportionate costs• Lowered objectives (art 4.5)

• Depending on technical infeasibility, disproportionate costs and/or natural condition

• New modifications for sustainable human developments or physical alterations of surface water bodies, or alteration level of ground waters (art 4.7)• Benefits overriding public interest, consideration of

alternatives – better environmental option


New modifications

• WFD allows for deterioration by new modifications under strict conditions:

• No better environmental options• Project is of overriding public interest/outweighing

water protection benefits• All mitigation measures are taken• Project and reasons are reported in RBM Plan• Other water bodies are not impacted/other

objectives not impaired

Often related to Habitats Directive Article 6.3




GREEN - River Basin Management Plan established

ORANGE - consultations finalised, but plans not yet published.

BLUE - consultations ongoing

PURPLE - consultations not started or ongoing in a part of the country

RED - consultations have not yet started

River Basin Management Plans … currently available


Guidance documents and further information


CIS Guidance Documents

… linked with ecological status assessment…2) Identification of Water Bodies3) Analysis of Pressures and Impacts4) Artificial and Heavily Modified Water Bodies5) Transitional and Coastal Waters – Typology, Reference Conditions6) Intercalibration Network and the Intercalibration Process7) Monitoring of surface waters…10) Rivers and Lakes Typology…12) Wetlands13) Classification of ecological status14) Intercalibration Process…23) Eutrophication Assessment in the context of European Water Policies


More information

Ecological status and intercalibration exercise:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-framework/objectives.html

http://forum.europa.eu.int/Public/irc/jrc/jrc_eewai/library (More technical information)

EU Research projects linked to ecological status classification:

AQEM http://www.aqem.de/

STAR http://www.eu-star.at/

REBECCA http://www.rbm-toolbox.net/rebecca/

E-mail: Ursula. [email protected]


Thank you for your attention.