Development of a protocol for identification of reference conditions, and boundaries between high, good and moderate status in lakes and watercourses (REFCOND)

REFCOND EU Water Framework Directive project funded by the European Commission DG Environment Included in the EU Water Directors “Common Strategy on the Implementation of the WFD”

REFCOND Lead country: Associated partners: Sweden Administration: Swedish EPA Co-ordination: Swedish Univ. of Agr. Sciences Associated partners: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and UK.

Objectives To develop an operative definition of type specific reference conditions. To develop criteria for selecting techniques for establishing type specific reference conditions. To develop principles for setting the boundaries between high, good and moderate ecological status.

Background The WFD requires Member States to identify, for each type of body of water, reference conditions for the purpose of identifying a reference biological community; The reference conditions must satisfy certain chemical and hydro-morphological criteria set out in Annex V in WFD for each category of body of water.

Background Criteria for reference conditions: Hydro-morphological and the general physico-chemical parameters should reflect totally, or nearly totally, undisturbed conditions; Specific synthetic pollutants should have concentrations close to zero or at any rate below the limit of detection of the most advance analytical techniques in general use; Specific non-synthetic pollutants should have concentrations within the range normally associated with background levels.

Background Identification of reference conditions: Reference conditions can be either spatially-based or based on modelling or using a combination of these; Reference conditions based on modelling can be derived using either predictive models or hindcasting methods, using historical, paleoecological and other available data; Where it is not possible to establish reliable reference conditions due to high degrees of natural variability in the element, the element can be excluded from the assessment of ecological status.

Background Classification and boundaries: For biological elements good status is based essentially on a slight departure from the reference biological population; For hydro-morphological elements and general physico-chemical parameters, there are no separate criteria for good status, the condition being that the elements are such as to support a biological community of the requisite standard; For specific synthetic and non-synthetic pollutants the condition for good status is that waters comply with the quality standard for the relevant substance.

Classification of ecological status 1 Deviation Status  High No/minimal  Good Slight Biological parameter value observed Reference biological value EQR=  Moderate Moderate Poor Bad

Work programme Detailed work programme - work packages: 1. Co-ordination 2. Establishment of project web-site 3. Agreement on common definitions 4. Review of techniques 5. Evaluation of techniques 6. Elaboration of first protocol draft. 7. Review and validation of protocol 8. Finalisation of protocol and termination of project

Timetable 01 Dec 2000 — 01 Dec 2002

Co-ordination Co-ordination by lead country: To ensure the successful delivery of the results of the different work packages; To establish successful channels of communication between project partners; To establish successful channels of communication with the EU Comm., ETCw, JRC and other inter-related European and national projects.

Web-site A web-site will be designed to: Disseminate project plans and results; Provide a virtual forum for discussion and exchange of information; Provide active links to other relevant web-sites, e.g. EU Comm., EIONET-components and other relevant projects and research groups; http://www—nrciws.slu.se/REFCOND/index.htm The CIRCA system will also be used.

Definitions Agreement on common definition of key elements in the WFD, especially an operative definition of reference conditions: Proposal to a definition of reference conditions and the historical period or other circumstances corresponding to reference conditions; The web-site will be used for discussions about WFD definitions; To be completed Dec 2002.

Review of techniques Review of techniques for identification of reference conditions and principles for the identification of boundaries between classes. Principles and techniques used in Member States and elsewhere will be reviewed; Each participating Member State is expected to report on their own procedures; The results will be reported and discussed at a workshop, 14-15 May in Uppsala, Sweden. To be completed June 2001.

WORK PROGRAMME WORK PROGRAMME Evaluation of techniques Evaluation of techniques used for identification of reference conditions and principles for delineation of quality classes. A comparison and evaluation of techniques and principles will be made, taking into account ecological realism, environmental relevance, need for supporting data, robustness, precision, etc; The possibilities and limitations of different procedures in the context of the WFD will be highlighted;

WORK PROGRAMME WORK PROGRAMME WORK PROGRAMME Evaluation of techniques The evaluation is expected to be made by selected Member States, on a voluntary basis and with tasks distributed among participants according to expertise and interest; The results will be reported and discussed at a workshop, where the outline of a common protocol for the assessment of reference conditions will also be discussed; To be completed in December 2001 (workshop November).

First protocol draft Elaboration of first protocol draft. Based on the findings in the previous stage, a first draft outlining a common procedure for identification of reference conditions and boundaries between high, good and moderate status will be produced and submitted to Member States for comments. The draft will be produced by the leader. To be completed in May 2002.

Validation of protocol Review and validation of protocol. All Member States are expected to review and comment on the protocol, and those who want may perform one or several case studies; The results will be reported at a workshop, where modification of the draft that might be necessary will be discussed and the final protocol outlined; To be completed in October 2002 (workshop September).

Finalisation of protocol Finalisation of protocol and termination of project. Based on the findings in the previous step the protocol will be revised and a final report to the Commission will be written; To be completed in December 2002.

Overview