Brussels, 4 April, 2014 – WG Water Accounts Pierre STROSSER Towards a guidance document on the application of « water balances » for supporting EU water policy Brussels, 4 April, 2014 – WG Water Accounts

What you find in this presentation (and accompanying background document) First thoughts and ideas…. … that originate from a brainstorming meeting that took place in February 2014

A guidance: what for? To guide European water managers in charge of the preparation of River Basin Management Plans… … in the application of water balances at the river basin/catchment scale... … as support to quantitative water management (water scarcity & drought, WFD)

The proposed structure of the guidance Section Issues addressed Executive summary I. Introduction Water quantity, WFD, EU level work 2. Building the (physical) water balances Definitions & components of the water balance, practical implementation/experiences, data issues (models, uncertainty), scale issues 3. Using Water Balances for supporting water management Development of the PoM (including e-flows), target setting and allocation (including e-flows), climate change adaptation, resource efficiency, reporting 4. Expanding the physical water balance for addressing complementary issues Water quality, economics, Eurostat reporting... 5. Annexes Sources of information for developing physical water balances, water balances and optimisation...

The way forward April 2014 WG meeting , finalisation of the structure of the guidance, individual contributions identified (WG Members, EC grants…) May & June 2014 Contributions delivered June & July 2014 Development of the first full version of the guidance (V1), meeting of drafting group for reviewing & identifting additional input (alternative: beg.september) Sept. 2014 Revised version of the guidance (V2) October 2014 WG WA meeting for reviewing the draft guidance (V2) Nov. 2014 Finalisation of the guidance – for presentation at SCG/water directors…

Five questions to WG members Q1. Do you thin the focus and target group for the guidance is relevant /respond to existing needs? Q2. Do guidance documents on the same topic exist in MS? Q3. Which additional issue would need to be tackled in the guidance? Q4. Which additional section, or change in the order of chapters, would you propose for the guidance? Q5. Reactions on the way forward? In particular, interest in contributing (specific chapter, case studies & illustrations, review, etc.) to the guidance?

Feedbacks from WG Members To be filled during discussions

Many thanks for your attention! Pierre STROSSER Many thanks for your attention! Brussels, 4 April, 2014 – WG Water Accounts