Water status assessment and classification: Lessons from MS and Turkey

1. Module 2: Water Budget, Pressures and Impacts, Significant Water Management Issues, Monitoring, Characterization Report Surface waters Status classification Yannick Pochon Antalya, 13/01/2014

2. Contents • 1. Introduction • 2. Statusassessment • Definitions • Lessonslearntfrom MS • Statusassessment in Turkey ?

3. 1. Introduction

4. In thispresentationwe’ll focus the definition of water status and its components Definitions and WFD requirementswillbeprovided Situation at EU Level, ExamplesfromMS and Turkey

5. 2. Statusassessment

6. Surface water status is the general expression of the status of a body of surface water, determined by the poorer of its ecological and chemical status. Good surface water status means that its ecological status is at least ”good” and its chemical status is ”good”. Ecological statusis an expression of the quality of the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. 2.a Definitions and main principles

7. Basic unit for classification is the water body. Surface water body means a discrete and significant element of surface water such as a lake, a reservoir, a stream, river or canal, part of a stream, river or canal, a transitional water or a stretch of coastal water. For the heavily modified and artificial water bodies the lower environmental objectives could be set, and ecological potential is defined.

8. Ecological status - basic principles: type specific classification; Pressure specific elements; comparison to the reference conditions; fulfilling normative definitions of WFD.

9. Typology Rivers: • Ecoregion • Sizeofcatchmentarea • 10-100km2, 100-1 000 km2, 1 000-10 000 km2 • Altitude • <200m, 200-800, >800 • Geology: • calcareous • siliceous • organic

10. Typology Lakes: • Ecoregion • Altitude • <200m, 200 - 800, >800 • Meandepth • <3 m, 3 - 15 m, >15m • Size category • 0,5-1km2, 1-10 km2, 10-100km2, > 100 km2

11. Reference conditions According to the WFD - reference conditions need to be established for water body types and quality elements which are represented by parameters indicative of the status of the quality elements.

12. The basis for the identification of reference conditions is given in Annex II, 1.3 in the WFD. The main options for establishing reference conditions are: • Reference conditions identified by using data from monitoring sites – referencesites; • Reference conditions identified based on predictive modelling; • Reference conditions established by using either historical data or paleoreconstruction or a combination of both; • Reference conditions established by using a combination of the above approaches; • Referenceconditionsestablishedusingvirtualcommunity; • Refrenceconditionsusedreferencesitesfromothercountries; • Expert judgement.

13. Normative definitions of the WFD: Species diversity Abundancy/quantity/biomass Sensitivespecies Shouldbeincluded in themetricsoftheclassificationsystem.

14. Substances macrophytes physico-chemistry diatoms invertebrates fishes 41 prioritary/dangerous subst. 99 other subst. otherspest. Ecological Status Chemical Status Water body status Hydromorphology Definition of High status Waterbodiesstatus Biology

15. One out all out principle The WFD works on the one-out all-out policy, meaning that if an individual quality element is not achieving good status for a particular watercourse then the entire water body is classified as failing to meet the objectives The use of the 1OAO principle is mandatory since WFD integrates it as a key element of the ecological status assessment. So, MS and RBDs have no discretion on how to communicate the results to the Commission. The 1OAO principle is currently discussed between Member States and RBDs Authorities who wonder whether this principle of assessment of WBs is the most relevant and if it really allows presenting the most accurate picture of the ecological status of the aquatic environment. There is currently a consensus the Commission and the MS to find what could be the relevant complementary indicators to complement the 1OAO principle.

17. Decision tree for ecological status

18. Decision tree forecologicalpotential

21. Status of Biological Quality Elements • The status of biologicalqualityelementsisdetermined by usingbiotic indices. These are numerical values (metrics) thatreflect the quality of the element. • Differentbiotic indices representdifferent aspects of quality: somerelated to particular pressures (for example, saprobic indices relate to the strength of organic pollution based on the differentsensitivities of differentspecies of plants and animals to this pressure) and others to naturalcharacteristics of the community (such as the total number of different types of plants or animals or theirabundance). • The metricsused for eachbiologicalqualityelementshouldcover all the aspects of qualitymentioned in the normative definitions in Annex 5 of WFD. Thesedifferbetweenelements and water categories.

22. EcologicalQuality Ratio • EQR is determined for each biological element • EQR for different indicators/parameters in frame of one element can be averaged • the biological element having the lowest EQR values decides about the ecological status

23. Differentbiologicalqualityelements are used in differentcategories of water body. In rivers, macrophytes and phytobenthos are considered to be a single qualityelement, eventhoughthey are usuallyconsidered as separateelements for the practicalpurposessuch as managing monitoring programmes. Because of this, macrophytes and phytobenthos do not have to becombined by the one-out all out method. The EQRs for eachbiologicalelement are combinedusing the one-out all out principle to determine the overallbiologicalstatus.

25. Status of General Chemical and Physico-Chemical Quality Elements The general chemical and physico-chemical quality elements supporting the ecological elements. They are all natural elements and conditions that are needed by the type-specific biological communities. The general chemical and physico-chemical quality elements have three status classes. The high/good boundary is the value or concentration of the element in (near natural) reference conditions; the good/moderate boundary is the value or concentration necessary to support the good status. This is often referred to as the quality standard. Moderate status occurs where this standard is not met. The values and concentrations may vary according to typology. The overall chemical and physico-chemical status is determined from the status of the individual quality elements using the one out all out principle.

27. Status of hydromorphological Quality elements Hydro-morphological elements are only used to define high status. Water bodies in high status must have high status in terms of hydro-morphology. The high/good boundary for hydro-morphology quality elements is defined by conditions found in near-natural reference conditions. The hydro-morphology elements reflect conditions needed to support the biological quality elements. Status for individual hydro-morphology quality elements are combined using the one out all out principle. Only two hydromorphology status classes are used for defining water body status: high and good.

29. Status of Specific Pollutants (Chemical status) • Specific pollutants are natural or artificial chemicals that can act as pollutants and harm ecology in the wrong concentrations. There are two status classes for specific pollutants; Good and Bad. • The boundary for these status classes is the environmental standard. This is the concentration that is necessary to achieve good ecological quality in the long-term and the value is set in national legislation. Where the standard is passed, good or high quality is achieved, depending on the quality of other elements. Where there is a failure to achieve the standard, moderate status is assigned. SeeMichael Jackman’s presentations

30. fortheexpressionof the level of ecologicalstatus assessment confidencelevelcanbeevaluated by thesimplemethod: high medium low Confidenceoftheecological status assessment

31. 2.b Lessonslearntfrom MS

33. European level

34. Europe River classification Unknown 10 % Natural Artificial 4 % Heavily modified 73 % 13 %

39. Proportion of surface water notreachingGoodEcological status

41. http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/interactive/soe-wfd/wfd-surface-water-viewerhttp://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/interactive/soe-wfd/wfd-surface-water-viewer

42. France: surface waters, ecologicalstatus Remaining effort ! +15%

43. 2.c Illustrations fromTurkey

44. Typology Table : Typology system for rivers in Turkey, March 2014

45. Typology Table : Types of rivers in the basin in Bÿük Menderes River Basin, March 2014

46. Table 6: Typology system for lakes

47. Table 7: Types of lakes in the Büyük Menderes basin, March 2014

49. Reference conditions Table 12: Summary of criteria defining reference sites Developing reference criteria

50. Reference conditions Table 13: Reference water bodies and monitoring points in the basin