Format for Reporting Guidance

Working Group D - Reporting
Activity on State of the Environment Reporting / Draft Guidance on “Reporting required for assessing the state of, and trends in, the water environment at the European level”
Version 1.10 / 7 October 2005 / Task 3 Guidance on scope of SOE-parameters
Authors / Steve Nixon (ETC/WTR), Beate Werner (EEA)
General Comments / In the Work Programme 2005-2006 endorsed by Water Directors in December 2004, an activity on the State of the Environment was foreseen under the Working Group D on Reporting, and led by the EEA.
This first version of the guidance on this Task is to be discussed at the second meeting of Drafting Group on State of the Environment and Trends, on 11 October at the EEA.
Table 1 provides an overview of the reporting sheets that might be developed and subsequently used for SOER reporting – this list will need to be discussed and agreed with the drafting group. All the SOER aspects currently included in Eionet-Water are also indicated in Table 1. Four reporting sheets for SOER have been drafted to date relating to the reporting of concentrations of general physicochemical and hazardous substance determinands in surface waters and groundwaters. These four sheets are based on some (but not all) of the current Eionet-Water data flows, the specific details of which are defined in Reportnet’s Data Dictionary. Those aspects in the four reporting sheets that are not currently included in the Data Dictionary are pointed out. Links are also made with the relevant Article 5 and Article 8 compliance reporting sheets.
Once reporting sheets have been formulated and agreed, guidance on data processing, handling and reporting (Task 4), and the requirements for technical integration (Task 5) will have to be developed.
Please send comments to: Steve Nixon () and
Beate Werner ()

Table 1 Overview of the reporting sheets, and their developmental status, proposed for SOER reporting

Reporting Sheet Code / Reporting Sheet Title / SOER element / Reporting dates / Serial Number /
1. Surface waters (rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters)
NUT_ORG_SW / State of surface waters in terms of nitrogen, phosphorus and organic pollution indicators in water / Eionet-Water - Data Dictionary / October 2005,
October 2006 etc. / 1
HAZ_SW_WAT / State of surface waters in terms of Priority Substances and other hazardous substances in water / Eionet-Water - Data Dictionary / October 2005,
October 2006, etc. / 2
HAZ_SW_BTA / State of surface waters in terms of Priority Substances and other hazardous substances in biota / Eionet-Water - Data Dictionary / October 2005,
October 2006, etc.
HAZ_SW_SED / State of surface waters in terms of Priority Substances and other hazardous substances in sediment / Eionet-Water - Data Dictionary / October 2005,
October 2006, etc.
QNT_SW / State and quantity of water resources / Eionet-Water - Data Dictionary / October 2005,
October 2006, etc.
EMI_SW / Loads, discharges and emissions of pollutants to surface waters / Methodology under development
BIO_SW_INV / State of surface waters in terms of biological quality elements – benthic invertebrate fauna. / Methodology under development
BIO_SW_PHY / State of surface waters in terms of biological quality elements – phytoplankton / Methodology to be developed
BIO_SW_PHY / State of surface waters in terms of biological quality elements – other aquatic flora / Methodology under development
BIO_SW_PHY / State of surface waters in terms of biological quality elements – fish fauna / Methodology to be developed
HYD_RIV_LAK / State of rivers and lakes in terms of hydrological regime / Methodology to be developed
CON_RIV / State of rivers in terms of continuity / Methodology to be developed
TID_TW_COA / State of transitional and coastal waters in terms of tidal regime / Methodology to be developed
MOR_SW / State of surface waters in terms of morphological conditions / Methodology to be developed
2. Groundwater
NUT_GW / State of groundwaters in terms of nitrogen / Eionet-Water - Data Dictionary / October 2005,
October 2006, etc. / 3
HAZ_GW / State of groundwaters in terms of Priority Substances and other hazardous substances / Eionet-Water - Data Dictionary / October 2005,
October 2006, etc. / 4
SAL_GW / State of groundwaters in terms of saltwater intrusion / Eionet-Water - Data Dictionary / October 2005,
October 2006, etc.
QNT_GW / State and quantity of groundwater water resources / Methodology to be developed
EMI_GW / Loads, discharges and emissions of pollutants to ground water bodies / Methodology to be developed
3. Marine Waters (seaward of coastal waters
NUT_CHL_MW / State of marine waters in terms of nitrogen, phosphorus and chlorophyll / Eionet-Water - Data Dictionary / October 2005,
October 2006, etc.
HAZ_MW_WAT / State of marine waters in terms of Priority Substances and other hazardous substances in water / Eionet-Water - Data Dictionary / October 2005,
October 2006, etc.
HAZ_MW_BTA / State of marine waters in terms of Priority Substances and other hazardous substances in biota / Eionet-Water - Data Dictionary / October 2005,
October 2006, etc.
HAZ_MW_SED / State of marine waters in terms of Priority Substances and other hazardous substances in sediment / Eionet-Water - Data Dictionary / October 2005,
October 2006, etc.
BIO_MW_INV / State of marine waters in terms of biological quality elements – benthic invertebrate fauna. / Methodology under development
BIO_MW_PHY / State of surface waters in terms of biological quality elements – phytoplankton / Methodology to be developed
BIO_MW_PHY / State of surface waters in terms of biological quality elements – other aquatic flora / Methodology under development
EMI_MW / Point source loads, discharges and emissions of pollutants to marine waters / Methodology under development
Serial Number / 1
Reporting Sheet Code / NUT_ORG_SW
Reporting Sheet Name / State of surface waters in terms of nitrogen, phosphorus and organic pollution indicators
Lead EEA
Lead ETC/WTR / Steve Nixon ( )
Other inputs
Status
Date
Version / 4 October 2005
1
Collation of Comments on this version

What should be reported?

· Concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus and organic pollution indicators in river, lake, transitional and coastal water bodies – updated annually.

· Physical characteristics of the monitoring stations and the water bodies in which they are located – provided once per monitoring station unless there are changes between reporting periods.

· Proxy pressures on the upstream catchments of the river, lake, transitional and coastal water bodies – provided once per monitoring station unless there are changes between reporting periods.

· Above elements defined in the Data Dictionary of Reportnet (rivers http://dd.eionet.eu.int/dataset.jsp?mode=view&ds_id=2386 , lakes http://dd.eionet.eu.int/dataset.jsp?mode=view&ds_id=2384 , transitional and coastal waters http://dd.eionet.eu.int/dataset.jsp?mode=view&ds_id=2385 ).

Why is it needed?

The information will be used to formulate indicators that will be used to assess state and trend of the determinand and monitor progress with European policy objectives[1]. In addition, the information will be used to compare water quality and to identify potential problem areas at the European level.

How should it be reported?

Geographic information

a) Water body

To be consistent with the river basin approach under the WFD the data and information should be assessed based on representativity of the water body and the respective catchment area.

For ALL waterbodies the following information should be made available:

Unique code[2];

Name (if available);

x co-ordinate (Latitude) of centroid of waterbody;

y co-ordinate (Longitude) of centroid of waterbody;

Size (total length for river/transitional water bodies (km), total area for lakes/coastal water bodies (km2)); and

The water body type.

The information in the shaded text was due to be reported to WISE as part of the compliance information defined in Article 5 reporting sheet (SWB 2 - Identification of surface water bodies). Furthermore shape files or GML files of the water body should be provided (line for rivers, polygon for lakes/transitional/coastal water bodies) at a minimum of 1:1.000.000. MS should provide data at 1:250.000 as soon as it is available. (See the monitoring reporting guidance developed in the compliance drafting group).

b) Monitoring stations

The identification of the stations is needed in the state and trend assessments to enable different regional stratification and to undertake proper EU level assessments of spatial and regional trends.

For each monitoring station, the following information is requested:

· Station name;

· Unique station code;

· Unique code of water body [or group of water bodies[3]] to which the station is associated;

· X co-ordinate (latitude) of the station; and,

· Y co-ordinate (longitude) of the station.

· The designation of the stations in terms of Water Framework Directive’s surveillance (S), operational (O) or investigative (I) monitoring programmes. A station may be in more than one monitoring programme for example, surveillance and operational (S and O).[4]

The information in the shaded text is under discussion to be reported to WISE as part of the compliance information defined in Article 8 reporting sheets (SWM 2 - Surface Water Surveillance Monitoring Programme; SWM 3 - Preliminary Surface Water Operational Monitoring Programme; and, SWM 4 - Surface Water Investigative Monitoring Programme)

Data

· Annual average concentrations of the following determinands (if monitored) at each river and lake monitoring station. For stations in transitional and coastal water, disaggregated, individual sample data are requested. (To be reported and updated annually):

- Nitrogen (nitrate, nitrite, total oxidised nitrogen, total organic nitrogen, total nitrogen);

- Phosphorus (total phosphorus, orthophosphate);

- Organic pollution indicators (BOD5, BOD7, COD_Mn, COD_Cr, total organic carbon, total ammonium, oxygen concentration, oxygen saturation);

- Supportive determinands (pH (rivers and lakes), salinity (transitional and coastal waters), alkalinity, conductivity, depth (lakes), chlorophyll a (rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters).

· Data for

- 1) all the stations in your national monitoring networks (all stations requested for transitional and coastal waters stations) or

- 2) for a selection (subset) of stations according to Eionet-Water criteria

· As long a time series as possible for each station and determinand.

· Statistical information accompanying annual average concentrations;

- Number of samples per station per year

- Standard deviation

- Annual median concentration

- Sampling period

- Analytical method used (CEN/ISO code)[5]

- Limits of detection and determination of analytical method used.

· Physical characteristics of monitoring stations (to be reported only once for each station):

- Name/identity code of station, water body (see text on geographic information), catchment and river basin district;

- Type of monitoring station

- Catchment area upstream of station (rivers);

- Catchment area of lake;

- Altitude of lake and river station;

- Surface area of lake;

- Long term average river flow (where available);

- Predominant upstream catchment geology;

- Average depth of lake, transitional and coastal water body;

- Mean annual salinity of transitional and coastal water body;

- Mean tidal range of transitional and coastal water body.

· Proxy pressure information on the catchment upstream of the monitoring stations (to be reported only once for each station):

- Population density

- Urban land use

- Wetland land use

- Nature land use

- Forest land use

- Total agriculture

- Other agriculture

- Arable land use

- Pastoral land use

- Other land uses.

Format for Reporting Guidance

Geographic information

Data

Summary text

Other questions

What should be reported?

How should it be reported?