1 The EEA “Water accounts” approach Special regard to the use of nutrient balances Philippe Crouzet / BSS2

2 The DPSIR / PSR concept (nutrients relationships) Source: Nutrients Monograph EEA

3 Targets of assessment and accounting EEA mission is to provide... “relevant and reliable information”...: Causal relationships must be established accurately (‘relevant’), The information must be unbiased and comparable and comprehensive (‘reliable’). Tools are, among other: Statistical assessments (D / P vs. I ) Accounting frameworks (R / D vs. S / I) They operate on same data sets, at spatial level, and are complementary approaches

4 Basic understanding of accounting Basic questions Do gains compensate losses? Is quality carried with change? What are the processes? Practical questions How to build accounts?

5 Water systems accounts Ecosystem accounts Natural capital accounts

6 Nutrient mass balance and accounts Nutrients mass balance assessment is: Sectoral important information, Direct input to “emissions accounts”, “pressure” component in agricultural land Source of information to estimate “drivers” Possible use of mass balance models to assess water / pesticide issues The required scale / resolution is not the same however: Regional to catchment / NUTS5-4.

7 Prerequisites to accounts Establish and demonstrate causal relationships, Delineate the realm of accounts Make comprehensive data supply: Analytical (e.g.: all sources of emissions) Statistical survey (e.g.: water uses) Mixed (e.g.: reconstructing by modelling, as for water quality accounts or detailed mass balances) Accounting framework is a guideline to establishing multi-purpose interconnected data systems

8 Establishing causal relationships: D/S analysis Application: stratified analysis of catchment / water composition relationships. Ingredients for stratified nutrients assessments: CLC + population + catchments (e.g. CCM) + livestock (from mass balance model) Water composition statistics at stations Application model for defining strata Statistical methods and targets

9 Stratification: not straitghforward

10 Providing very demonstrative results

11 Relation Driver / Pressure Agricultural pressures are analysed through a combination of presence of certain types of land, livestock and population: this is Driver assessment Mass balance (“surplus”) assessment gives comparable, despite locally different pattern, depending on the resolution of surplus modelling

12 Surplus calculation at catchment level -~6200 units). State 2000 Source: MEDD / Ifen 2004 Maize contribution Pigs contribution Higher complexity Crop and livestock statistics Practices information Agronomical know-how Opens to detailed causal relationships

13 Mass balances required ingredients Inputs: Livestock effluents Chemical fertilisers Symbiotic fixation (N) Atmospheric deposits Outputs Export by vegetal crops Export by pastures and meadows Volatilisation (chemical fertilisers and livestock effluents) N ex. N Stb. N Past.. Manure Dung Speadeable area Grazing area Mass balance is typically an accounting exercise, that can fit (with minor adjustments) into the input-output tables: Nutrient balance (key to ecosystem accounting) Carbon (to be developped) Water uses and Pesticides (already tested by Ifen with the same model)

14 Required agronomical data sources resolution TableResolutionSource LivestockCatchment / NUTS4Census + calc. In StableNuts3BN2002 Dung/ManureNUTS3BN2002 VolatilisationNUTS1BN2002 Agri-land areaCatchment / NUTS4Census + calc. YieldsNUTS2 (3 sometimes)SAA2001 Export tech. Coef.NUTS1CORPEN N mine / cropNUTS2PC2001 Apportioning Fert.NUTS2PC2001 SpreadingNUTS2PC2001 Source: MEDD / Ifen (Solagro)

15 Next step: river assessment River quality generalized index (RQGI) as part of the water quality accounting methodology is under implementation at the EEA. Can be a stand alone production. Breakdown of quality indexes by catchment to be related with catchment characteristics, as pressures and drivers (spatial location of pressures) to follow.

16 Next step: adjusting mass balances to the needs Which mass balances to carry out in parallel with Estat / JRC, etc. to provide the ad hoc emission support? Which comparability / dissemination issues? Main issue is first collecting detailed census data (technical coefficients are more related to literature). Tries carried out by ERTC/TE , outcomes not yet consolidated.