October 31 st, 2007 – “BLACK SEA CELEBRATION DAY” - CONSTANTA

Dobrogea-Litoral Water Directorate (DADL) is situated in the South- Eastern Romania. The Directorate administrates the whole Litoral River Basin and part of the large Danube River Basin (the stretch between Ostrov and Sulina), through Constanta and Tulcea Water Management Systems. DADL is the sole Water Directorate having a water quality surveillance system that covers all types of sub- systems stipulated by The Water Framework Directive (60/2000/EEC). DADL, unlike other Water Directorates, monitorizes marine, lacustrian, and fluvial sub-systems belonging to the coastal and transitional waters.

Black Sea coastal waters are represented by surface waters situated between the coastline and the line that links the points situated at 1 Nautical Mile from the nearest point of the baseline situated between Chilia and Vama Veche localities. Black Sea coastal waters are represented by marine transitional waters (Chilia-Periboina) and the proper coastal waters (Periboina-Vama Veche). Black Sea coastal waters have been included in the Danube River District, which stretches over 807,827 sq.km, considering that the status of the Romanian coastal waters is heavily influenced by the status of the Danube River. Black Sea River Basin

Defining the abiotical typology of the coastal waters was based on the following parameters: Eco-Region; Salinity; Depth; Areas influenced by tidal impact; Current speed; Wave exposure; Multi-annual water average temperature; Mixture characteristics; Turbidity; Average composition of the substratum; Duration of covering with ice, as supplementary parameter; The utilisation of these parameters resulted in the identification of the following types: 1 type of marine transitional water RO_TT03 – situated between Chilia and Periboina; 2 types of coastal waters: RO_CT01 – shallow coastal waters with sandy substratum, between Periboina and Cape Singol; and RO_CT02 – shallow coastal waters with mixed substratum, between Cape Singol and Vama Veche. River transitional waters Lacustrine transitional waters Marine transitional waters Coastal waters Typology of surface waters

The Integrated Monitoring network for surveillance and measurement has been organized according the provisions of: The Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EEC; The Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EEC; Other European Directives; Other European Directives; The Black Sea Convention; The Black Sea Convention; The Danube River Convention; The Danube River Convention; The new WISE Reporting Model in water field of activities. The new WISE Reporting Model in water field of activities. Investigation environments: Water, Water, Sediments, Sediments, Suspended material, and Suspended material, and Biota. Biota. Surface water monitoring network in Dobrogea-Litoral River Basin

Marine transitional waters sub- system: - 2 monitoring sections with 6 profiles. Monitoring Programs: S,O,CI (TNMN, ConvMN). Coastal Waters Sub-System: monitoring sections with differentiated profiles: water line, 5m, 10m, 20m, 12 Nautical Miles. Monitoring Programs: S,O,IC,CBDS,CI (TNMN, ConvMN), HS. The ecological status is monitored through: - biological elements: FPL, MZ - physico-chemical elements: G,SO,N,AP.

One of The Water Framework Directive requirements regards an inter-calibration exercise aiming at harmonizing the systems of Ecological Status Assessment between the Member States. In this goal ECOSTAT Working Group prepared the strategy for developing the inter-calibration exercise between the Member States. The inter-calibration exercise is developed for each water category: rivers, lakes, transitional, and coastal waters and includes all common water types identified so far. For each category several Inter-Calibration Geographic Groups have been established, which are specific for each existing eco- region. For Coastal Waters category the following four Working Groups have been established: The Northern Atlantic The Baltic Sea The Mediterranean Sea The Black Sea.

Within the “Black Sea” Inter-Calibration Geographic Group, the “Black Sea GIG”, Romania and Bulgaria took part in the inter- calibration exercise. Romania acted as coordinator of this Inter- Calibration Geographic Group. Within this exercise only one common type of coastal water has been identified, having the following characteristics:

The exercise started in 2004; the first phase has been completed in June The main goal of the exercise was to achieve comparability in assessing the results obtained after completing the monitoring programs developed by each state that took part in the exercise. After the identification of certain common methods for the evaluation of surface water ecological status, the states should identify the limit-values between the very good/good and good/moderate classes. Romania Turkey Durankul ak X Krapets

The Romanian and Bulgarian experts carried out joint discussions regarding the limits of the ecological status preliminarily established on national level. The experts of the two countries agreed upon the values of the EQRs of the two parameters taken into consideration for this exercise. The first bilateral meeting was held in October 2004 at DADL headquarter. This meeting established the quality elements included in the inter- calibration exercise, as well as the Working Program for such activities – Sampling campaigns - Laboratory analyses - Interpretation of results - Data exchange between the experts 2006 – Four bilateral meetings - The experts had the opportunity to discuss the outputs achieved and the difficulties they had to face with.

The final results agreed by the experts of the two countries have been established taking into consideration:  The Biomass for Phytoplankton parameter  Diversity values: AMBI, M- AMBI and SHANNON for Macrozoobenthos parameter After three years of activity and with the support of the Research Institutes, the Romanian and Bulgarian experts were able, in June 2007, to submit to ECOSTAT Working Group the limits for these quality classes regarding two of the biological parameters:  Phytoplankton, and  Macrozoobenthos.

MACROZOOBENTHOS AMBI – Both countries agreed to use the limit-values defined by Borja. Shannon H’ – Both countries agreed to calculate this diversity value using log2. M-AMBI – The calculation is based upon the values for the very good status, very bad one, abundence, and diversity, established as characteristic for the coomon type of coastal water. PHYTOPLANKTON Biomass – Expert judgement, historical data, outputs

Nevertheless, this exercise is not completed. Only the first phase is completed, the second one is planned to be finalized in The second phase aims at including a number of supplementary parameters characteristic for the coastal waters: Macro algae and Angiosperms.