DIRECTORATE GENERAL JRC
JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE
Institute of Environment and Sustainability
WFD Intercalibration Phase 2: Milestone 1 report (for ECOSTAT meeting 1-2 October 2009)
The reporting for the second phase of the intercalibration exercise will be done according to the new guidance document that is in development. A first version of the guidance was distributed earlier. A new draft will be sent out to ECOSTAT members and GIG leads in the first week of September, for discussion at the ECOSTAT meeting of 1-2 October 2009.
The new guidance already foresees a ‘Milestone 1’ report for the autumn of 2009, with the following key elements:
– overview of the national assessment methods that will be intercalibrated
– check of their WFD compliance of the national methods
–‘feasibility check’ for intercalibration (do methods address common types and pressures, and follow a similar assessment concept?)
– progress on compilation of IC dataset
The template below follows the requirement of the (draft) guidance. All GIGs are kindly requested to submit their progress reports for the relevant quality elements following this template as much as possible. At this stage it is acceptable to leave empty those sections that have not been addressed in your GIG.
Also, you are requested to update the relevant sections of the intercalibration work plan (distributed as a separate document).
Depending on how the work has been organized, we expect one response for each quality element for each of the GIGs. In case of horizontal activities (e.g. large rivers) or where the work is carried out cross-GIG (e.g. fish in rivers), one coordinated response is expected. Please contact the IC steering group if you need any further clarifications:
Sandra Poikane () - Lakes
Wendy Bonne () - Coastal/Transitional
Wouter van de Bund () - Rivers.
Please send your responses before 15th September 2009 to
Water category/GIG/BQE/ horizontal activity: / EC GIG – natural lakesInformation provided by: / Otilia Mihail – leader of the GIG
1: Organisation
1.1. Responsibilities and participation
Please indicate how the work is organised, indicating the lead country/person.
The work is organised according to the structure of EC GIG, respectively phytoplankton, macroinvertebrates, macrophyta, and fish groups.
Romania is coordinator of EC GIG -natural lakes, and Otilia Mihail is the leader.
The leader of phytoplankton group is Gabor Borics on behalf of Hungary
The leader of macroinvertebrates group is Bela Csanyi on behalf of Hungry
The leader of macrophyta group is Anca Sarbu on behalf of Romania
The leader of fish group is Serban Iliescu on behalf of Romania
We have a permanent dialogue by email and also meetings are held periodically
Are there any difficulties with the participation of specific Member States? If yes, please specify
1. The common typology was established and must be validated if was properly defined or not
2. Sampling and assessment methods of macroinvertebrates, macrophyta, and fish are under development.
3. Reference conditions should be established
4. Funds are not properly available
1.2. Work plan, Timetables and deadlines
Annex 1 to this questionnaire contains the GIG work plans as presented at ECOSTAT in April 2008 please provide an updated version the general work plan for your GIG below
GIG / Eastern Continental / Last update: 14.09.2009Quality element / phytoplankton
Overview of results achieved to date and issues to complete/improve:
The Intercalibration exercise started
Only one country (Hungary) has developed phytoplankton assessment system (based on phytoplankton composition)
Achievements:
- Establishment of common lake types
- Agreement on application of the Hungarian composition metric for Romanian and Bulgarian phytoplankton data.
- Agreement on the type specific importance of the bloom metric.
Gaps:
- Common database under development
- Applicability of the Hungarian composition metric has be proved
- Biomass metric missing for all MS
- Bloom metric missing for all MS
Scope of the continuation work:
IC on parameter level
- Establishment of common phytoplankton database
- Application of the Hungarian method to Romanian and Bulgarian data. If the result acceptable for the participating countries Option 1. If the results not acceptable Option 2 or 3.
- Common agreement on the way of setting the Chl-a boundaries for all the EC GIG lake types.
- Agreement on the method used for defining the bloom metric
IC on biological element level
- Discussing and testing of different combination rules of the metrics
- Agreement on common boundaries if Option 1 approach is used, or Option 3 comparison of complete national methods
Estimated timetable for the completion of the work:
- End of 2009: Establishment of common database, application of Hungarian composition metric, proposing Chl-a boundaries, defining bloom metric
- End of 2009:identification and harmonisation of sampling and counting methods,, testing the Chl-a boundaries and the bloom metric on national datasets, review of typology , review of database,
- 2009-2010: Testing of the common and/or national methods
- 2009: Identification and harmonisation of methods, including uncertainty analyses and testing of the statistical performance of different methods. Comparing the HU method and RO method to establish which is appropriate for our goals
- 2010: setting boundaries using new data from monitoring programmes
Comments:
RO finalized the evaluation method for phytoplankton in spring, which is according to WFD
GIG / Eastern Continental
Quality element / Macrophytes Update: 14.09 2009
Overview of results achieved to date and issues to complete/improve:
The intercalibrationa exercise not started yet, but the preliminary steps were done:
A workshop for evaluation of existing knowledge and gaps was organised in March 2009 in Romania. The Bulgarian and Hungarian partners were present. The workshop results were:
· Selection of the commune lake types to be included in the intercalibration exercise
· Agreement on application of the methodology proposed by Romania
- Agreement on the development of a commune data base for the intercalibration lakes
- No country has finalized macrophyte assessment system
- Hungary and Romania has started to develop macrophyte assessment systems
- No common dataset, HU and RO has macrophyte data, BG no
Scope of the continuation work:
· Development (by Romania) of the macrophytes assessment protocol and make it available for Bulgarian and Hungarian experts
· Evaluation of the existing aquatic macrophytes diversity in lakes / country, associated with their indicator value
· Starting the macrophytes assessment in the selected lakes for intercalibration, based on the commune agree methodology
Development of the common data base for intercalibration lakes and a common system to process and compare the results
Comments
- HU will keep the Kohler method (adapted for lakes) for the Intercalibration work and collect data in HU for common EC types in 2009/2010 and send it to MS of EC GIG
- BG could test the Kohler method, adapted for lakes after the method is proposed by RO (2010-2011)
Estimated timetable for the completion of the work:
2009-2011
- Development of the aquatic macrophyte composition and abundance (according the available data) data set, selection of the assessment method and development of the IC exercise (RO, BG, HU)
Estimated timetable for the completion of the work:
2009
Ø First meeting of GIG East Continental experts – macrophytes was organised in Romania in March
Ø The Second meeting of GIG East Continental experts – macrophytes will be organised in Romania (deadline November 2009)
Ø The list of aquatic macrophytes species / country (deadline December 2009)
Ø The finalisation of common method for aquatic macrophytes assessment in lakes (deadline December 2009)
2010
Ø A training workshop and a field exercise will be organised in Romania in spring/summer (deadline August 2010)
Ø The assessment of aquatic macrophytes from the selected lakes, will start in Ro, HU and BU in summer 2010 and will continued in 2011 (deadline September 2010)
Ø The methodology for evaluation of macrophytes index will be available in autumn (deadline November 2010)
-An exercise in the field will be organized in August/September 2010 in Romania. The aim of this exercise is to test the method for macrophyte assessment (distribution and abundance), proposed by Romania and to train the field workers
2011
Ø the book “Guidance on the assessment of macrophytes in lakes” will be published (deadline February 2011)
Ø Data base compilation for the lakes included in the intercalibration exercise (deadline September 2011)
Ø Pilot IC exercise: Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary (deadline September 2011)
Comments
Finalise the intercalibration exercise up to the end of 2011 depend on the development of a compatible system of assessment and evaluation of aquatic macrophytes, including the data base development and data processing
GIG / Eastern Continental
Quality element / Benthic fauna Update: 14.09. 2009
Overview of results achieved to date and issues to complete/improve:
IC Work has started with the basic first steps
Data:
So far from RO only; HU started monitoring
Classification methods:
Under development
Scope of the continuation work:
2009: Checking expected data availability for first IC trial, data collection, draft of criteria for reference sites, draft of criteria for compliance of national methods
· Looking for as many lakes as possible to involve wide range of quality status and reference condition sites
· Preparation of sampling protocol ( end of September)
· Design the work for data collection
· Starting data collection
2010: Continue data collection, establish common database (benthic fauna and background physico-chemical datasets), start data analysis, refinement of reference site selection/description of reference conditions-key issues in EQR assessments
2011: Harmonisation of EQR class boundaries, agreement common boundaries (Option 1) or comparison of complete national methods (Option 3)
Comments:
The first step was done during meeting which has been held in March in Romania. The work directions have been established, respectively data collection, and how the sampling protocols should be prepared
BG will test sampling protocol provided by HU (2009/2010) and send the data to MS
New data coming from WFD compliant monitoring programs may be incorporated at later stage
GIG / Eastern Continental
Quality element / Fish fauna Update: 14.09 2009
Overview of results achieved to date and issues to complete/improve:
IC exercise has started with the basic first step
Work March 2009
1. First meeting of fish experts of EC GIG was on 1-2 March.
2. Agreement on the CEN standard sampling methods (combined methods - electrofishing - gillnets with different mesh size, for assessing the water –EN14757/2006)
3. Agreement on the main pressures to consider in the future analyses and on the threshold to consider for references ;
4. Data collection on environmental parameters and establishment of a typology for lakes with fish data available.
5. Establishment of a list of candidates’ fish metrics (species composition, abundance, total length, weight, age structure, alien species abundance).; adopting the main methodological outcome produced by the river group)
6. Starting the fish monitoring within EC GIG countries. First step – fish inventory.
Scope of the continuation work and estimated timetable
2009
Work Plan:
- Common sampling exercise was on June 29th –, July 3rd in Romania. The aim of this campaign was to implement combined sampling methods in the field. All countries were attended that
- field protocol template – was sent by email by Romania in June 2009
- the format of database was sent by email by Romania in June 2009
- data will be compiled by Romania and will be submit to CEMAGREF
- collection of data on pressures and fish (December 2009)
- inventory of fish species in each country (December 2009)
2010
- Database compilation
- Selection of reference sites based on the pressures collected and assessment of the modelling approach feasibility/proposal of alternative approach
Intercalibration
Test of common European metrics’ ability to detect pressures (2009-2010) and intercalibration with all the existing national methods (option 2) - Test of the metrics in countries/GIGs with data recently collected (2009 and 2010)
Finalise IC before 2011 depend on the status of development of metrics
Comments
The evaluation method of this biological element will be develop step-by-step depending on activity of fish cross GIG
All three GIG countries have some problems with natural lakes which have been chosen, because many of them are for sportive fishing, recreation, or are in private regime. For these reasons the natural fish populations have been seriosly changed
2: Methods to be intercalibrated
2.1. Overview of Member States providing national assessment methods
Do you have an overview of the national classification methods that will be intercalibrated? If not: when will this information be available?
Generally Comments
The assessement methods are under development and still needs time to be finalized. Generally speaking, the metodologies and metrics for natural lakes are not developed yet.
Phytoplankton –the method proposed by Hungary was agreed as final method for testing. We also use the chlorophyll “a” method to define the trophic status of lakes
Macrophyta - The method proposed by Romania and was accepted by Hungarian and Bulgarian experts as final testing version; it will be available at the end of 2009/beginning of 2010.
Fish – a mixted method proposed by Romania was agreed for sampling. No further details were established.
2.2. Checking of compliance of national assessment methods with the WFD requirements
What are the arrangements in the GIG to verify the compliance of national assessment methods with the WFD requirements? Has the GIG already started an evaluation of the compliance of national assessment methods with WFD requirements? Please give a short report on how this is done (or will be done)
No. We will establish in November or the ends of January at least weather the methods used by the countries in intercalibration process are complied with WFD.
2.3: Progress on Feasibility checking: method acceptance criteria
The intercalibration process ideally covers all national assessment methods within a Geographical Intercalibration Group. However, the comparison of dissimilar methods (“apples and oranges”) has to be avoided. Intercalibration exercise is focused on specific type / biological quality element / pressure combination. The intercalibration guidance foresees an “IC feasibility check” to narrow the actual intercalibration analysis to methods that address the same common type(s), the same anthropogenic pressure(s), and follow a similar assessment concept.