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REQUIREMENTS FOR WATER MONITORING

Topic report 1/96

S.C. Nixon, Y.J. Rees, A Gendebien
and S.J. Ashley

European Topic Centre on Inland Waters

June 1996

This report was prepared under the supervision of N. Thyssen, Project Manager,
European Environment Agency

Download the report as PDF File [666 Kb]

Together with three inventories of ongoing water monitoring activities in European countries, this report foms the baseline from which the European Environment Agency will be well placed to fulfil its mandate to provide objective, reliable and comparable information for those concerned with framing, implementing and further developing European water policy.

The report describes in detail the requirements for monitoring prescribed by exiting and proposed EU legislation and from international agreements in terms of water types (groundwater, surface, coastal and marine), matrix (water, sediment, biota), determinands, methodologies, frequency of monitoring, location and density of monitoring sites, quality control procedures, and data treatment and storage.

The report identifies a number of deficiencies which are barriers to obtaining valid and comparable data on a pan-European basis. Barriers to the harmonisation of monitoring can be introduced at all stages in network design, and can also arise because of conflicting legislative requirements or because requirements are not clearly specified.

Table of contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. INTRODUCTION
2. AIMS AND APPROACH
3. THE DATABASE 3.1 Database structure 3.2 Data analysis
4. INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS 4.1 EU legislation and policies 4.2 Other international agreements
5. MONITORING - BASIC REQUIREMENTS 5.1 Groundwater 5.2 Fresh surface waters 5.3 Salt waters 5.4 Quantity monitoring
6. MONITORING - DESIGN REQUIREMENTS 6.1 Sampling 6.2 Analytical methods 6.3 Reporting requirements 6.4 Compliance assessment
7. IMPROVING MONITORING EFFICIENCY
8. CONCLUSIONS
APPENDICES APPENDIX A COPY OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE FORWARDED TO NATIONAL FOCAL POINTS FOR VALIDATION AND LIST OF CONVENTIONS REVIEWED APPENDIX B LIST OF ORGANISATIONS RESPONSIBLE FOR VALIDATING THE QUESTIONNAIRE APPENDIX C THE PROPOSED AND ACTUAL TIMETABLE FOR COMPLETION OF MW1 QUESTIONNAIRE APPENDIX D SUMMARY OF BASIC MONITORING REQUIREMENTS FOR INLAND WATERS APPENDIX E SUMMARY TABLES OF DETAILED MONITORING REQUIREMENTS FOR INLAND WATERS APPENDIX F DEFINITION OF TERMS USED IN DIRECTIVES AND INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS