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Regional climate change and adaptation — The Alps facing the challenge of changing water resources
Drawing on the most recent knowledge of climate change impacts in the Alps and experiences across the region, this report analyses the risks that climate change presents to the region's water supply and quality, identifying needs, constraints, opportunities, policy levers and options for adaptation. It extracts policy guidance on adaptation practice and aims to assist regional and local stakeholders in developing robust adaptation strategies. The focus of the report is on water resources and related adaptation, rather than water-related extreme events like floods, avalanches, landslides or mudflows, which are already well covered by existing studies of climate change impacts in the Alps.
Chemical status of surface water bodies
For surface waters, good chemical status means that no concentrations of priority substances exceed the relevant EQS established in the Environmental Quality Standards Directive 2008/105/EC (as amended by the Priority Substances Directive 2013/39/EU). EQS aim to protect the most sensitive species from direct toxicity, including predators and humans via secondary poisoning. A smaller group of priority hazardous substances were identified in the Priority Substances Directive as uPBT (ubiquitous (present, appearing or found everywhere), persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic). The uPBTs are mercury, brominated diphenyl ethers (pBDE), tributyltin and certain polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Click on <..> to see different dashboards, more dashboards are available below the main dashboard.
Delineation of water bodies
The Water Framework Directive ‘water environment’ includes rivers, lakes, transitional waters, groundwater and coastal waters out to 1 nautical mile (12 nautical miles for chemical status, i.e. for territorial waters). These waters are divided into units called water bodies. Member States have in the river basin districts delineated water bodies and reported different data to characterize water bodies such as length or area, category (groundwater, rivers, lakes, transitional, coastal waters), national type and information if a surface water body is designated as heavily modified or artificial. More dashboards are available below the main dashboard.
Ecological status of surface water bodies
Ecological status is an assessment of the quality of the structure and functioning of surface water ecosystems. It shows the influence of pressures (e.g. pollution and habitat degradation) on the identified quality elements. Ecological status is determined for each of the surface water bodies of rivers, lakes, transitional waters and coastal waters, based on biological quality elements and supported by physico-chemical and hydromorphological quality elements. The overall ecological status classification for a water body is determined, according to the ‘one out, all out’ principle, by the element with the worst status out of all the biological and supporting quality elements. More dashboards are available below the main dashboard.
Groundwater quantitative and chemical status
The WFD requires Member States to designate separate groundwater bodies and ensure that each one achieves 'good chemical and quantitative status'. To meet the aim of good chemical status, hazardous substances should be prevented from entering groundwater, and the entry of all other pollutants (e.g. nitrates) should be limited. Good quantitative status can be achieved by ensuring that the available groundwater resource is not reduced by the long-term annual average rate of abstraction. In addition, impacts on surface water linked with groundwater or groundwater-dependent terrestrial ecosystems should be avoided, as should saline intrusions. Further dashboards are available below.
Pressures and impacts
The WFD requires the identification of significant pressures from point sources of pollution, diffuse sources of pollution, modifications of flow regimes through abstractions or regulation and morphological alterations, as well as any other pressures. ‘Significant’ means that the pressure contributes to an impact that may result in failing to meet the WFD objectives of not having at least good status. In some cases, the pressure from several drivers, e.g. water abstraction from agriculture and households, may in combination be significant. Further dashboards are available below.
Quality element status
Ecological status is determined for rivers, lakes, and transitional and coastal waters based on biological quality elements (phytoplankton, macrophytes, phytobenthos, benthic invertebrate fauna and fish) and supporting physico-chemical (nutrients, oxygen condition, temperature, transparency, salinity and river basin specific pollutants (RBSPs) and hydromorphological quality elements. The WFD specifies which elements are to be assessed for each water category and requires that biological and supporting quality elements achieve at least good status. The dashboards provide overview of the different results related to ecological status of quality elements. Further dashboards are available below.
Territorial cohesion and water management in Europe: the spatial perspective
This report considers the links between water management in the EU — especially the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) — and territorial cohesion (1), in the perspective of spatial analysis (2) and spatial planning (3). It looks at the role of spatial analysis and planning for the implementation of the Directive as well as related provisions such as the Floods Directive and the development and implementation of River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs). It considers links between Regional Policy (4) and water management in the EU, including the lessons from a spatial perspective. It further looks at cross‑country cooperation, a key element of both the WFD and territorial cohesion and finally considers future challenges for implementation of the Directive and the development of RBMPs, in particular considering the spatial context.