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Indicator Assessment
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Key assessment
Introduction to Bathing Water Directives
The first European bathing water legislation, the ´Bathing Water Directive´ was adopted in 1975 and came into force in 1976. Its main objectives are to safeguard public health and protect the aquatic environment in coastal and inland areas from pollution. Bathing waters covered by the Bathing Water Directive can be coastal waters or inland waters (rivers, natural lakes, reservoirs and ponds) in which bathing is explicitly authorised by the competent authorities of each Member State, or not prohibited and traditionally practiced by a large number of bathers. Swimming pools and waters for therapeutic purposes are not covered. The period during which bathers can be expected in bathing areas depends largely on local bathing rules and weather conditions. A bathing season can also vary within a Member State. In the European Union it usually runs from the end of May until the end of September.
New European legislation on bathing water was adopted in 2006. The ´New Bathing Water Directive´ updates the measures of the 1975 legislation and simplifies its management and surveillance methods. This Directive requires that EU Member States comply with even stricter requirements and implement effective management of bathing water, public participation and better information dissemination.
All countries monitored and reported the measured values of concentrations in their bathing waters of two microbiological parameters - intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli in 2012 when reporting under the new bathing water directive becomes obligatory. For the 2012 season, bathing water quality has been assessed under the new bathing water directive in 19 European countries, including Croatia. Bathing water quality in the other ten countries has been assessed under a set of transitional rules, since the full set of data sampled according to the rules of the new directive going back four years is not yet available for these countries.
Results
See also EEA report: European bathing water quality in 2012
European Union (Figure 1-2)
Europeans have a huge diversity of beautiful beaches and bathing areas at their disposal. In 2012, the 27 EU Member States reported 20 930 bathing waters, of which more than two thirds (69 %) are coastal bathing waters.
Coastal bathing waters
In 2012, 95.3 % of all coastal waters in the EU achieved the minimum quality standards established by the EU directives (Fig. 1). This was an increase of 2.0 percentage points compared to 2011. The share of bathing waters with excellent quality (or complying with the guide values) in 2012 reached 81.2 % (an increase of 0.9 percentage points from 2011).
In 2012, EU Member States reported 249 coastal bathing waters (1.7 %) with poor quality or not in compliance with mandatory values, an increase of 0.3 percentage points compared with 2011. This year-on-year increase goes against the longer-term trend, which has been a steady decline in the share of coastal bathing waters that do not comply with bathing water directives: for example, the share of non-compliant bathing waters in 1990 was 9.2 %. Eight coastal bathing water sites were closed or banned in 2012, which is significantly fewer than in 2011, when 139 coastal bathing waters were closed or banned.
It was not possible to classify the status of the remaining 421 coastal bathing waters (which represents 2.9 % of all coastal bathing waters), because they were insufficiently sampled, not sampled, or were newly opened and could not yet be assessed under the new directive due to changes. This presented a 1.4 percentage points decrease from 2011, when 4.3 % of all coastal bathing waters could not be classified.
Compliance with so-called 'mandatory' values (those waters meeting the 'sufficient' standard) increased steadily between 1990 and 2000, but has remained quite stable since then. Compliance with so-called 'guide' values (those waters meeting the 'excellent' standard - a more strict standard than the mandatory value) was also on an increasing path from 1990 to 2000, before reaching a plateau. It then dropped below 80 % in 2010 and has since remained
stable.
Inland bathing waters
The percentage of inland bathing waters with excellent quality was 72 % in 2012 (Fig. 2). This is 1.6 percentage point increase in comparison to the 2011 bathing season. In 2012, 91 % of inland bathing waters in the European Union had good or sufficient quality. This is a one percentage point increase from 2011.
Only 2.3 % of inland bathing waters in the EU did not satisfy the minimum quality level. This is 0.1 % decrease from the previous year, continuing the slow but steady reduction in the percentage of poor quality bathing waters. The share of banned or closed bathing waters for 2012 was 0.5 % and is also smaller in comparison with 2011 by 0.5 percentage points, following the steady trend of 2010–2012 period.
Out of 6 436 inland bathing waters, it was not possible to classify the status for 399 (6.2 %) as they were insufficiently sampled, not sampled, newly opened or not yet assessed due to changes. This is an decrease of 0.4 percentage points from the previous year, and stopping a trend that began in 2009 of an increasing share of bathing waters whose status could not be classified.
Assessment by countries (Figure 3-4)
See also WISE interactive map: State of bathing waters and national bathing water reports for the 2012 bathing season
Coastal bathing waters
A total of 23 countries reported coastal bathing waters in 2012. Italy (4 880), Greece (2 149), France (2 034), Spain (1 926), Denmark (973), Croatia (912) and the United Kingdom (617) have the highest number of coastal bathing waters. Countries with less than 50 coastal bathing waters are Romania (49), Belgium (42), Latvia (32), Estonia (27), Slovenia (21) and Lithuania (16). There are no coastal bathing waters in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Switzerland.
Cyprus, Slovenia, Malta, Lithuania, Belgium, Latvia and Romania achieved at least sufficient quality or complied with the mandatory value in all their coastal bathing waters in 2012 (Fig. 3). At least sufficient or mandatory water quality was below the average of the European Union (95.3 %) in seven countries. These were the United Kingdom (93.7 %), Denmark (93.5 %), the Netherlands (91.2 %), Sweden (88.3 %), France (87.1 %), Finland (86.7 %) and Estonia (85.2 %).
In Cyprus and Slovenia all coastal bathing waters also achieved excellent quality or met the guide values. In Malta (96.6 %), Croatia (96.1 %), Greece (93.4 %) and Portugal (91.8 %) more than 90 % of coastal bathing waters achieved excellent quality or met the guide values. The excellent or guide water quality was below the average of the European Union (81.2 %) in 14 countries. Countries with less than 60 % of coastal bathing waters having excellent quality or meeting the guide values were the United Kingdom (58.8 %), Belgium (52.4 %), Estonia (40.7 %), Latvia (37.5 %) and Romania (8.2 %).
Inland bathing waters
A total of 26 countries reported inland bathing waters on lakes and rivers in 2012. Germany and France have the highest number of inland bathing waters (1 929 and 1 288). The other countries with more than 250 inland bathing waters are Italy (629), the Netherlands (605), Switzerland (335) and Austria (266). Countries with less than 20 inland bathing waters are Latvia (14), the United Kingdom (12), Luxembourg (11), Ireland (nine), Croatia (seven), Greece (six) and Bulgaria (four). The reasons for such low numbers vary by countries. There are no inland bathing waters reported from Cyprus, Malta and Romania.
In Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Estonia, Ireland, Slovenia, Greece and the United Kingdom all inland bathing waters achieved at least sufficient quality or complied with the mandatory value in 2012 (Fig. 4). At least sufficient or mandatory water quality was lower than the average of the European Union (91 %) in 11 countries. Countries with less than 80 % of inland bathing waters having at least sufficient quality or complying with the mandatory value were Belgium (79 %), Hungary (69.8 %), Croatia (14.3 %) and Switzerland (13.7 %).
As with the coastal bathing waters, the differences among countries in regard to guide values (or excellent quality) are higher than in regard to mandatory value (or at least sufficient quality). Bulgaria and Luxembourg also achieved excellent quality or met the guide values in all their inland bathing waters. In Denmark (89.7 %), Germany (89.7 %), Estonia (88.9 %) and Finland (88.2 %) more than 80 % of inland bathing waters achieved excellent quality or met the guide values. The excellent or guide water quality was lower than the average of the European Union (72 %) in 14 countries. Countries with less than 50 % of inland bathing waters having excellent quality or meeting the guide values were France (49 %), Spain (46.1 %), Slovenia (34.6 %), Greece (33.3 %), the United Kingdom (25 %), Switzerland (10.1 %) and Croatia (0 %).
Assessment by sea regions (Figure 5-6): EU27 plus Croatia and Switzerland
Coastal bathing waters
The majority of coastal bathing waters are located on the Mediterranean Sea coasts (9 894), representing almost two thirds of all reported coastal bathing waters in Europe. The number of coastal bathing waters is 2 542 on the Atlantic Ocean coasts, 1 617 on the Greater North Sea coasts and 1 197 on the Baltic Sea coasts. This number is much lower for the Black Sea coasts (138).
The Black Sea (99.3 %) and the Mediterranean Sea (97.8 %) coasts performed above average in achieving at least sufficient quality or complying with the mandatory value compared to the EU average of 95.3 % and the European average (including Croatia) of 95.5 % in 2012 (Fig. 5). Some 95.2 % of coastal bathing waters on the Baltic Sea coasts, 93.8 % of coastal bathing waters on the Greater North Sea coasts and 87.6 % of coastal bathing waters on the Atlantic Ocean coasts achieved at least sufficient quality or complied with the mandatory value.
Some 89.1 % of coastal bathing waters on the Mediterranean Sea coasts achieved excellent quality or met the guide values compared to the EU average of 81.2 % and the European average (including Croatia) of 82 %. The excellent or guide water quality was below average on the Atlantic Ocean (72.8 %), the Baltic Sea (72.3 %), the Greater North Sea (63 %) and the Black Sea (42.8 %) coasts.
Inland bathing waters
The Greater North Sea catchment area covers the highest number of inland bathing waters in Europe (2 670), accounting for almost 40 % of all reported inland bathing waters in Europe. There are 1 402 bathing waters in the Mediterranean Sea catchment area. The number of inland bathing waters is 941 in the Black Sea, 898 in the Baltic Sea and 864 in the Atlantic Ocean catchment areas.
The Baltic Sea (92.5 %), the Black Sea (89.9 %) and the Atlantic Ocean (88 %) catchment areas performed above average in achieving at least sufficient quality or complying with the mandatory value compared to the European average (including Croatia and Switzerland) of 87.1 % in 2012 (Fig. 6). Some 86.5 % of inland bathing waters in the Greater North Sea catchment area and 80 % of inland bathing waters in the Mediterranean Sea catchment area had at least sufficient or mandatory water quality. A high percentage of insufficiently sampled bathing waters in Switzerland (86.3 %) lowers the European average compared to the EU average of 91 %.
As with the coastal bathing waters, the differences among sea regions in regard to guide values (or excellent quality) are higher compared to the mandatory value (or at least sufficient quality). The Baltic Sea (80.6 %), the Black Sea (76 %) and the Greater North Sea (74.8 %) catchment areas achieved excellent quality or compliance with the guide values above the EU average of 72 % and the European average (including Croatia and Switzerland) of 68.9 %. The excellent or guide water quality was the lowest in the Mediterranean Sea (53.9 %) and the Atlantic Ocean (52 %) catchment areas.
The indicator describes the changes over time in the quality of identified bathing waters (inland and coastal) in EU in terms of compliance with standards for parameters introduced by the EU Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC) , i.e. microbiological parameters (total coliforms and faecal coliforms) and physicochemical parameters (mineral oils, surface-active substances and phenols), as well as in terms of meeting standards for parameters introduced by the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC), i.e. microbiological parameters (intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli). The indicator also shows bathing water quality results in the European countries and European sea regions for the 2012 bathing season. The indicator is based on the annual reports made by Member States, as well as Croatia and Switzerland to the European Commission. Croatia (Member State from July 2013) is not included in EU average up to the 2012 season.
The data are expressed in terms of percentage of inland and coastal bathing waters complying with the mandatory values and guide values for microbiological and physicochemical parameters (assessment under the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC) in previous years) and with the mandatory value for Escherichia coli and guide values for Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci respectively (assessment during transition period). The data are also expressed in terms of percentage of inland and coastal bathing waters of excellent and at least sufficient quality (assessment under the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC)). In addition, Figure 1 and 2 show percentage of coastal and inland bathing waters per compliance category or quality class where all categories/classes are presented. The quality classes under the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) are jointed with compliance categories under the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC). Some bathing waters cannot be classified according to compliance or quality but are instead classified as closed, insufficiently sampled or not sampled, new or changes.
Under the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC) Member States are required to designate coastal and inland bathing waters and to monitor the quality of the water throughout the bathing season. Bathing waters are designated where bathing is authorised by the competent authority and also where bathing is traditionally practised by a large number of bathers. The bathing season is then determined according to the period when there are the largest number of bathers (May to September in most European countries). The quality of the water has to be monitored fortnightly during the bathing season and also two weeks before. The sampling frequency may be reduced by a factor of two if the water quality gets a good rating for two previous consecutive years (compliance with mandatory or guide values). Annex 1 of the directive lists a number of parameters to be monitored but the focus has been on bacteriological quality. The directive sets both minimum standards (mandatory) and optimum standards (guide). For compliance with the directive, 95% of the samples must comply with the mandatory standards. To be classified as achieving guide values, 80% of the samples must comply with the total and faecal coliform standards and 90% with the standards for the other parameters.
On 24 October 2002, the Commission adopted the proposal for a revised Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Quality of Bathing Water COM(2002)581. The New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) entered into force on 24.3.2006. It applies to any element of surface water where the competent authority expects a large number of people to bathe and has not imposed a permanent bathing prohibition, or issued permanent advice against bathing, except for swimming pools and spa pools, confined waters subject to treatment or used for therapeutic purposes and artificially created confined waters separated from surface water and groundwater. The Directive makes use of only two bacteriological indicator parameters, but sets a higher health standard than the Directive 76/160/EC. Based on international epidemiological research and the experience with implementing the current Bathing Water and Water Framework Directives, the revised Directive provides long-term quality assessment and management methods in order to reduce both monitoring frequency and monitoring costs. It creates four quality categories for bathing waters - 'poor', 'sufficient', 'good' and 'excellent'. The classification of bathing water quality is determined on the basis of a four-year trend instead of a single year's result, as was the case for the Bathing Water Directive. Member States have until December 2014 to achieve full implementation of the New Bathing Water Directive. As such Member States could choose to report either under the Bathing Water Directive or the New Bathing Water Directive until the 2011 bathing season. From the 2012 bathing season reporting under the New Bathing Water Directive becomes obligatory since the first classification according to the requirements of this Directive shall be completed by the end of the 2015 bathing season (using data for the period 2012-2015). Member States must take one sample at each bathing place shortly before the start of the bathing season and continue sampling until the end of the season, with at least one sample per month for Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci.
The New Bathing Water Directive lays down provisions for more sophisticated monitoring and classification of bathing water. It also provides for extensive public information and participation in line with the Århus Convention as well as for comprehensive and modern management measures:
• The Directive requires Member States to draw up a management plan for each site to minimise risks to bathers based on an assessment of the sources of contamination that are likely to affect it. Users of the site should be actively involved in developing the management plan. Where bathing sites have a history of poor water quality, preventive measures should be taken to close the bathing area when such conditions are forecasted. If the quality standards are not respected, remedial measures must be taken.
• Information on a bathing site’s quality classification, the results of water quality monitoring, the site’s management plan and other relevant information is to be made readily available to the public, both through displays at the site and through the media and internet.
• While the Directive 76/160/EEC requires regular monitoring of 19 pollutants or other parameters (for example water colour) the revised Directive reduces this list to just two microbiological indicators of faecal contamination, E. Coli and intestinal enterococci. This simplification reflects recognition that faecal matter, for instance due to inadequate sewage treatment and pollution from animal waste, is the primary health threat to bathers.
• The classification of water quality at a bathing site is determined on the basis of a four year trend instead of a single year’s result, as was the case for the Bathing Water Directive. This means that the classification is less susceptible to bad weather or one-off incidents. Where water quality is consistently good over a four year period the frequency of sampling may be reduced, thereby cutting costs. It provides for the assessment of water quality on the basis of the set of water quality data compiled during the bathing seasons.
• The Directive requires "bathing profiles" to be drawn up describing the characteristics of the bathing water and identifying sources of pollution. The presence of pollution may result in needing to regularly review the status of the bathing, ban bathing there if needed and inform the public.
• To ease the monitoring burden for Member States the Directive reduces monitoring frequencies if the quality of bathing areas proves to be constantly "good" or "excellent".
All bathing waters to comply with mandatory values in Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC).
Increase in number of bathing waters complying with guide values in Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC).
All bathing waters are at least ‘sufficient’ by the end of the 2015 bathing season in New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC).
Increase the number of bathing waters classified as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ in New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC).
No related policy documents have been specified
Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC)
The parameters to be taken into account for assessment according to the assessment rules of the Directive 76/160/EEC are microbiological (1 Total coliforms, 2 Faecal coliforms) and physico-chemical (8 Mineral oils, 9 Surface-active substances reacting with methylene blue, 10 Phenols (phenol indices)). The assessment under this Directive was done up to the 2011 bathing season (three countries still reported and being assessed under this Directive) since reporting under the Directive 2006/7/EC becomes obligatory from the 2012 season on.
The results are classified in the following categories:
Assessment during the transition period - reporting under the New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) and assessment according to the limit values of the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC)
Assessing bathing water quality under Directive 2006/7/EC requires a data set of four consecutive years. While those data are being compiled, the rules for transition period are applied. This means that the classification of bathing waters is defined on the basis of concentrations of intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli reported under Directive 2006/7/EC. The limit values for the classification are taken from the Directive 76/160/EEC. The parameter intestinal enterococci is evaluated according to the guide value for the faecal streptococci parameter given in Directive 76/160/EEC. The parameter Escherichia coli is evaluated according to the mandatory and guide values for the parameter faecal coliforms given in Directive 76/160/EEC.
The results are classified in the following categories:
The frequency of sampling is set out in Annex IV of the Directive 2006/7/EC. Including a sample to be taken shortly before the start of the bathing season, the minimum number of samples taken per bathing season is four. However, only three samples are sufficient when the bathing season does not exceed eight weeks or the region is subject to special geographical constraints. Sampling dates are to be distributed throughout the bathing season, with the interval between sampling dates never exceeding one month.
One pre-season sample should be available and the interval between sampling dates in 2012 should never exceed 35 days, provided that the next sampling is done according to the monitoring calendar.
The sampling frequency rules applied in previous years are described in annual European and national bathing water reports for previous seasons. The previous reports are available at the European Environment Agency’s bathing water website (http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/status-and-monitoring/state-of-bathing-water).
New Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC)
When four consecutive years of samples of intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli for bathing water are available, the assessment is done according to assessment rules of the Directive 2006/7/EC.
Coastal and inland bathing waters are classified as 'excellent', 'good', 'sufficient' and 'poor' quality. The assessment is based on a percentile evaluation and defines three different standards separately for inland and coastal bathing waters. The standards for excellent and good quality are based on a 95-percentile evaluation; the standards for sufficient quality are based on a 90-percentile evaluation. Bathing waters not meeting the standards for sufficient quality are classified as poor. Some bathing waters cannot be classified according to their quality but are instead classified as 'closed' (bathing water is closed temporarily or throughout the 2012 season and a complete set of data is not available), 'new' (bathing water is newly identified and classification not yet possible), 'insufficiently sampled' (a pre-season sample is missing, sampling frequency is not satisfied or a set of data is not complete) or 'changes' (bathing water is not new and classification not yet possible since a set of monitoring data is incomplete).
The frequency of sampling is set out in Annex IV of the Directive. Including a sample to be taken shortly before the start of the bathing season, the minimum number of samples taken per bathing season is four. However, only three samples are sufficient when the bathing season does not exceed eight weeks or the region is subject to special geographical constraints. Sampling dates are to be distributed throughout the bathing season, with the interval between sampling dates never exceeding one month.
The assessment provisions of the Directive 2006/7/EC are transformed into the following technical rules: a) one pre-season sample should be available; b) the interval between sampling dates in 2012 should never exceed 35 days, provided that the next sampling is done according to the monitoring calendar; c) the yearly number of samples in the previous years should be four or three if bathing season does not exceed eight weeks or the region is subject to special geographical constraints. Furthermore, the number of samples for the assessment period should be at least 16 or 12 if season duration is less than eight weeks or the region is subject to special geographical constraints.
Hungary grouped 54 % of the bathing waters (124 out of 232) into 44 groups for the 2012 bathing season. Therefore, the assessment of bathing water quality in 2012 is done by groups. The samples obtained during the season from any of the bathing waters in a group were treated as one set of samples for the group. The classification of bathing waters in a group is done on the basis of this sample set.
The sampling frequency rules applied in previous years are described in annual European and national bathing water reports for previous seasons. The previous reports are available at the European Environment Agency’s bathing water website (http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/status-and-monitoring/state-of-bathing-water).
No gaps are filled.
No methodology references available.
There are differences in how countries have interpreted and implemented the directive leading to differences in the representativeness of bathing waters included in terms of recreational water use.
The EU has expanded during the life of the Directive from 12 countries in 1992 to 28 at present. The time series is thus is not consistent in terms of geographic coverage. The new EU Member States have reported on the quality of their bathing waters since 2004 or 2005 (EU-10), 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania) and 2009 (Croatia). Croatia (Member State from July 2013) is not included in EU average up to the 2012 season. Switzerland has reported on the quality of their bathing waters since 2009 and Montenegro reported for 2010 and 2011. No allowance is made for differences between the years in the number of (EU) countries reporting, and the numbers of identified bathing waters.
Human enteric viruses are the most likely pathogens responsible for waterborne diseases from recreational water use but detection methods are complex and costly for routine monitoring, and so the main parameters analysed for compliance with the Directive are indicator organisms; total and faecal coliforms. Compliance with the mandatory standards and guide levels for these indicator organisms does not therefore guarantee that there is no risk to human health.
The Directive 2006/7/EC reduces the number of parameters from 19 to 2 key microbiological parameters, complemented by visual inspection such as algae bloom, and oil.The parameters used for setting the standards were reviewed and streamlined, focusing on the most robust microbiological indicators which are the most relevant for human health. Parameters are based on the latest scientific evidence.
The new parameters are the following:
Other microbiological parameters such as total coliforms and enteroviruses were removed because according to the latest scientific evidence they were not considered to be the best indicators for assessing bathing water quality. The choice of microbiological parameters is based on available scientific evidence provided by epidemiological studies conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and health institutes in Germany, France and Netherlands.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/bathing-water-quality/bathing-water-quality-assessment-published-5 or scan the QR code.
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