River Fish Intercalibration group D. Pont,Cemagref, France) Coordination: D. Pont,Cemagref, France) N. Jepsen (JRC Ispra)

PILOTE EXERCICE (May 2006 – June 2007 ) 21 MS Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Netherland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain Objectives: Comparison of reference conditions Description and comparaison between national methods Testing common metrics at European level Results: Feasibility of the intercalibration exercise using common metrics at the European level Lack of well-defined common criteria reference sites selection Common metrics not calibrated for particular situations (Mediterranean rivers, Hydro-morphological pressures)

River-Fish Intercalibration Meeting (April 21-22 2008. Ispra, Italy) INTERCALIBRATION EXERCICE (2008 – 2009) 25 MS Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Netherland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United. K. River-Fish Intercalibration Meeting (April 21-22 2008. Ispra, Italy) Defining common reference criterias All data centralized in one common database - Pre classification of pressure - Environnemental variables Evaluation and Testing of a new set of common metrics (EFI+ project) Comparison between National Methods within Regional groups Harmonizing H/G and G/M class boundaries between MS.

LIST OF PRESSURES - Consistency in setting reference conditions Deviation from « no pressure » status acceptable ? Nb of ref. sites Pressure evaluation: ref. sites list / responses to different pressure-types ? length of river segments: 1 km for streams (catchment <10 km2), 1 km for small rivers (catchment 10-100 km2), 5 km for medium-sized rivers (100-1000 km2), 10 km for large rivers (>1000 km2)

METHOD ICM (Option 2) Common metrics (EFI+ project) All Europe (no GIGs) No river types Regional comparison (Option 3) National methods Nordic group Alpine group Lowland-Midland Group Mediterranean-S. Atl. Group Danubian Group Reference sites selection GIGs GIG 1 GIG 2 GIG 3 All sites (common database) River types 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 4 Common Metrics Modelisation / Standardisation (natural environment variability) Associated uncertainties GIG / Type specific BQE values

Common approach (ICM, Option 2) - ICM computation - ref. conditions between Countries / Reg. Groups High/Good & Good/Moderate boundaries comparisons Associated uncertainties Common database All considered sites (ICM & national) Ref sites list Environm. variables Fish data Pressure types - ICMs (EFI+ link) - National methods 3 Discussion Agreements INTERCALIBRATION Specificities (Environment, pressures) Deviation from Ref. Crit. Ref sites list Fish as indicator ? Data collection National methods (~13) Option 3 General meetings 1 3 Nordic Alpine-type Mountains Lowland Midland Mediterranean South-Atlantic Danubian Regional meetings

June 2008: Standardized database structure send to all MSs (Access) TIMETABLE April 2008: 1st IC Meeting (Ispra). Definition of objectives and time table May 2008: Commented reference criteria lists collected (15th May). Synthesis back: end of May June 2008: Standardized database structure send to all MSs (Access) Link between tables: sitecode, date, longitudinal/latitudinal coordinates Environmental variables, Pressure list National method results would be included in specific table (one table per method) October 2008: Sites with fish data, environmental variables and pressure data submitted 25/26 November 2008: 2nd IC Meeting (AT). Database analysis. Reference sites list 15th February 2009: Deadline for results from National methods and Common Metrics May 2009: 3rd IC Meeting. Draft reports from the regional groups . Results and Discussion July 2009: 4th meeting. Final discussion about H/G and G/M classes boundaries September 2009: Draft final report October 2009: Final report: methodology, results, boundaries between Class 1/2/3 Questions, & environmental situations remaining open. Future tasks.

Link between EFI+ project and Fish IC group Evaluation and Adaptation of the European Fish Index (EFI+) EFI + European Project (2007-2008) East-European countries, Mediterranean countries Fish community responses to hydro-morphological pressures Fish responses to connectivity impairment (diadromous species, historical data) Large floodplain rivers (defining reference condition with historical data) Age-length based metrics EFI+ metrics used as common intercalibration metrics Common Meetings EFI+ project & Fish IC group - Meeting Ispra 2007 - Final Conference Hull, 2009)