1. EEA State of Environment WISE Maps and Graphs, examples
Peter Kristensen EEA and
Anne Lyche Solheim, ETC-Water

2. WFD biological reporting

3. State of the Environment visualisation (EEA)
The core of any water related State of Environment (SoE) assessment is to quantify and identify the current state of, and impacts on, water environment - how these are changing in time and whether the measures taken at different levels are effective.
Such an assessment should:
provide the basis for identification and assessment of environmental problems and the dominant threats at regional and European levels;
provide information necessary to enable actions/policies to be taken to improve the environmental state of the water bodies and to ensure sustainable development;
be based upon the most relevant time and spatial scales to meet the two objectives stated above

4. Visualisation of SoE data in WISE maps
Different formats are used depending on the scale of the map:
For pan-European maps (< scale 1 : ), data are aggregated by country or national River Basin District (RBDs) level.
For countries: maps show pie charts of the distribution of the variable into different classes (e.g. BOD, NO3, TotP etc.).
The national RBDs are coloured according to the class obtained for the average of the variable for all the stations located within the RBD. Other statistics are currently tested to optimize representativity (e.g. median, 95% lowest stations…)
For scales more detailed than 1 : , individual station points are visible and are coloured according to agreed categories for annual means of the variable. Symbol size depends on the map scale (more detailed map = bigger symbols).

5. September 2008: Maps available via the WISE map viewer http://www. eea

6. European maps (scale < 1 : 5 mill
European maps (scale < 1 : 5 mill.) Example shows distribution of BOD in rivers, per country

7. European maps (scale < 1 : 5 mill
European maps (scale < 1 : 5 mill.) Example shows average NO3 in rivers –per RBD

8. Potential development of RBD maps
Dummy map
Colouring of RBDs according to average of all stations,
and extra information on the class distribution within each RBD

9. Lakes: Total phosprus
Country: Pie-chart
RBD: Average value

10. Scale more detailed than 1 : , individual station points visible and colored according the variable classification.
Instead of stations, water bodies can be shown

11. Trends in nutrients

12. Trends of Tot P in lakes for different regions

13. What can be done with the biological data?
Show trends of :
EQRs for macroinvertebrates in rivers
EQRs for phytoplankton in lakes
EQRs for macrophytes in lakes
Chlf a in lakes for different regions and lake types
% bluegreens for different regions and lake types
Macrophyte growing depth for different lake types
Relative abundance of isoetids or charaphytes for different lake types
Maps showing the same parameters in the same way as shown for nutrients above

14. How can the member countries benefit from biological data reporting?
See their own data in relation to other countries
See data from all countries for transboundary river basins, important for upstream vs. downstream countries
See biological impacts of pollutants across Europe
Analyse their own trends relative to the Pan-European or regional trends
Enhance motivation for standardisation/ harmonisation of methods for biological elements
Enhanve motivation for monitoring of biological elements
Improve the basis for decision making on pollution reduction measures across Europe