| Title: |
REBECCA Deliverable D3: Analysis of knowledge gaps
|
| Resource Type: |
document --> technical publication --> report
|
| Country: |
EU Projects
|
| Year: |
2005 |
| Availability: |
Heiskanen, Anna-Stiina & Solimini, Angelo G. (2005) REBECCA Deliverable D3: Analysis of knowledge gaps.
|
| Author 1/Producer: |
Heiskanen, Anna-Stiina
|
| Other Authors/Producers: |
Solimini, Angelo G.
|
| Author / Producer Type: |
EC Project
|
|
EUGRIS Keyword(s): |
Water resources and their management -->Water resources and their management Overview
|
| Short description: |
The general objective of the REBECCA project1 is to provide relevant scientific support for
the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The two specific aims of the
project are, firstly, to establish links between ecological status of surface waters and
physico-chemical quality elements and pressures from different sources, and, secondly, to
develop and validate tools that member states can use in the process of classification, in
the design of their monitoring programs, and in the design of measures in accordance with
the requirements of the WFD.
Historically, there has been great success in maintaining and improving the quality of
surface waters by developing an understanding of the links between anthropogenic
pressures (e.g. water abstraction, agriculture, and effluent discharges) and the chemical
status of waters, although there remain many challenges in reliably designing and
implementing the necessary programs of measures. Our present understanding of the link
between chemical properties and ecological state, while good in some instances, is
generally not adequate to support management intervention against ecological objectives.
In this report we review and identify information gaps in our knowledge on relations
between pressures, chemical and ecological status for the major pressures types and
biological quality elements. We also give an overview of the chemical parameters that are
used to determine the ecological status of water body types and of the biological indicators
currently applied and/or potentially applicable as classification parameters for inland and
coastal waters.
This gap-analysis is needed to 1) identify the key areas of further work within the
REBECCA project and 2) to identify the areas where further experimental or monitoring
work would be needed (beyond the scope of REBECCA), due to lack of data or quantitative
understanding of the functional relationships between chemical status and biological quality
indicators. This report should help in focusing the on-going WFD intercalibration process in
2005-6. In particular it should provide insights on which biological and pressure parameters
should be selected and which data there would be available to illustrate the degradation of
the biological quality with respect of pressure gradients.
Regarding data availability to Rebecca project, major gaps were identified as follow:
• Data from the Mediterranean and alpine lake types
• Data from large part of the Mediterranean coastal & transitional types (with
exception of Italy)
• Data on concentrations of toxic chemical substances in combination with biological
quality element indicator data
• Macrophyte and benthic invertebrate data from many lake & coastal types
• Fish data from lakes (and transitional waters – not included in REBECCA)
Apart from these data gaps, there are common “knowledge gaps” in relation to tasks
required by the WFD that exist for all surface water categories:
• Development of reference conditions
• Development of type-specific classifications
• Criteria for setting class boundaries
• Criteria for setting ecological thresholds
|
|
Submitted By:
|
Dr Stefan Gödeke WhoDoesWhat?
Last update: 28/09/2006
|
|
|
