Towards shared water assessments Shared environmental information system - SEIS Peter Kristensen Project Manager Inland water data & indicators Welcome participants and highlight the title as the working title for the entire team meeting – not all questions will be answered in this presentation, but hopefully in the course of the day

Much valuable water information is available at country level Water websites describing in water resources, water pollution and state of water systems. Water chapter in SoE reports State of water and many detailed reports During the last years several countries have established Internet based services similar to the WISE-viewer such as database access and Web-GIS functionality that provide the interested public with access to monitoring results.

State of the Environment Reporting Information System (SERIS) http://www.eionet.europa.eu/seris Project 4 (SEIS IP) SERIS upgrade SERIS - Water

SERIS 2.0 – SERIS Water SERIS update Information in SERIS is not always up-to-date Restricted to SoE reports including water chapters SERIS - Water WISE is already the European water portal (policies – water data – European assessments) Should country/RBD water assessments be linked to WISE/SEIS? How could it be done?

where to find the right information? Too much information- where to find the right information? Information user

National WFD links in WISE Not water assessments

European water assessment should: provide the basis for identification and assessment of environmental problems and the dominant threats at regional and European levels provide information necessary to enable actions/policies to be taken to improve the environmental state of the water bodies and to ensure sustainable development

Current data flows for European water assessments

Current data and information flows and benefits of shared water assessments The current data and information flows from country to European level are unidirectional. Current data flows are only covering part of the information needed for European assessments. They are not taking enough stock of results from assessments and analysis at national and RBD level. Links from European assessments to national and RBD assessments would enable access to more specific and detailed information. Links to national results could improve the timeliness and make the assessments more policy relevant Increased ownership of European assessments

From exchange of data to shared water assessments Current: Countries report data EEA producing European assessments Shared water assessments: Data available at source Use of results from national assessments Cross-referencing between national and European assessments

Towards shared water assessments

Linking RBD, country and European assessments

Nitrate concentration in rivers Map and diagram illustrating nitrate concentration and trend in Walloon rivers European (EEA and DG ENV) and country assessments generally have: • A map illustrating the concentration level • Trend graphs illustrating the development in nitrate concentration The following example is a first rough visualisation of shared water assessments Source: L'Etat de l'environnement Wallon 2006 : CH 10: L'eau et l'environnement aquatique

Example In the future water assessments reporting on nitrate concentration can be done as a co-operation between EEA and the countries, where EEA together with the countries produce European assessments and then link to similar assessments produced at country/RBD or watershed level On the following pages is by a simple template: key message; map & trend graph; assessment; links to other geographical scales and link to more detailed information illustrated how European and national assessments of nitrate/nitrogen in rivers can be linked.

Challenges There are several challenges, which require a close cooperation between EEA and member countries in the Eionet. Many of the challenges have to be explored and discussed with Eionet partners in the coming years. The most obvious are the following: • Quality assurance: Consistent quality assurance of the basic data is the first vital step to a good comparability between member countries • Streamlining/harmonisation: As the examples in the previous section show the approaches for assessments should be comparable (e.g. map and trend graph). • Commitment by countries to participate in the exercise. Resource constraints Volunteer countries together with EEA to develop the methodology

Questions for further discussion Is the vision of shared water assessments well described (paper and presentation)? Where are clarifications needed? Are the benefits and challenges well described? What should be added? Is there an interest by member countries in developing this vision further and who would volunteer to co-operate with EEA on the further development?