1. Representative Groundwater Quality Monitoring network in Austria
Austrian experience in implementation of Directive 2000/60/EC requirements
Andreas Scheidleder
Umweltbundesamt - Austria

2. Groundwater Quality Monitoring Network in Austria

3. Legal Background Federal Water Act Hydrography Act
Ordinance for Water quality Monitoring
Ordinance for Groundwater Threshold Levels

4. Monitoring and Network
Definitions:
Austrian ordinance on water quality monitoring
A GW-Quality Monitoring Network comprises all sampling sites which describe the overall groundwater region in a representative way and which are subject of regular sampling ...
WFD – Annex V GW monitoring network
.... The groundwater monitoring network shall be designed so as to provide a coherent and comprehensive overview of GW chemical status ...

5. Key figures of the monitoring network
GW-in Porous media ~ 1800 sites
Karst-GW and GW in fractured rock ~ 250 sampling sites
sampling as a rule 4x a year
costs of analyses and data transfer are met by federal (2/3) and provincial (1/3) authorities
costs of selection and establishing sampling sites are met totally by federal authorities
costs per year: 2.2 to 2.9 Mio. Euro
cyclic procedure – 6 years
1 year extended investigation programme
5 years programme according to the results of year 1 – but minimum programme is ensured

6. Investigated Parameters
The parameters monitored in groundwater are split into three blocks comprising about 100 different parameters:
Block 1: the most important inorganic parameters with relevance to the environment, e.g. nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, phosphate, boron, alkali metal and alkaline earth metal (e.g. potassium, calcium, magnesium)
Block 2: the heavy metal group (e.g. arsenic, mercury, cadmium) and lightly volatile halogenated hydrocarbons (e.g. tetrachloroethylene)
Block 3: the broad group of pesticide substances (e.g. triazine, phenoxy alkane carbon acids), the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, etc.

7. Quality assurance Programme
Nationwide standardised tendering documents
Accredited Laboratories
Provision of key figures of the analytical procedures within the bidding files
Standardised procedure (guidelines) including sampling methods
Laboratory control visits
Compulsory participation in sampling courses
Compulsory participation in (international) round robin tests
Control system in routine work with spiked samples – performed by the Institute for Agrobiotechnology (IFA-Tulln).
Minimum requirements for limit of quantification and limit of detection

8. Data access and use Access to quality data Internet – online queries
Biannual reports and other publications
Presentations
Data provision due to request by interested parties (enquiry by telephone or )
User groups
Interested public
Scientific institutions
Administrative bodies
consultants
NGO's
...

9. Karte aus der letzten Präsentation nehmen

10. Network adaptation
Until 2006 adaptation of the existing GW- Quality Monitoring Network according to the new GW-bodies and WFD as far as required.
Network to be adapted by end of 2005
Tendering procedure in 2006
Monitoring network operative by Dec 2006

11. Need of representative network
Starting point
Risk and status assessment on the basis of existing data.
Only possible on the basis of a representative network
Well-founded assumption that the current network was designed to be a representative network which was continuously adapted
New GW-body delineation
Partly considerable deviations from the current delineation
GW bodies without sites
Checking of representativity
Development/Selection of appropriate checking algorithms

12. Analysis of network representativity
1. STEP – preliminary assessment at Federal Level
Groundwater bodies
Representativity Index Ru - elaborated in CIS WG 2.8
Groups of groundwater bodies
Thiessen polygons
2. STEP – final assessment at Regional Level
Local expertise assessing information of Art. 5 Analyses (e.g. hydrogeology etc.)

13. Groundwater bodies Representativity Index Ru
1. STEP – Preliminary assessment
Pre-assumption: hydrogeological homogeneity
Representativity Index Ru reflects spatial representativity as a measure of homogeneity
Average minimum distance between any location in the area to the closest sampling site expressed as percentage of the average minimum distance for an optimal network
Ru = 100 % in an optimal network
Elaborated in CIS WG 2.8

14. Groundwater bodies Representativity Index Ru
sites < 3
3 <= sites < 5
5 <= sites < 10
sites >= 10
Ru < 50 %
50 <= Ru < 70
Ru >= 70 %
Network representative
Network partially representative
Network not representative

15. Groundwater bodies Representativity Index Ru
2. STEP - Final assessment of network
If the GW-body is hydrogeologically hetero- geneous the network has to be developed in a hydrogeologically representative way!

16. Groups of groundwater bodies Thiessen polygons
1. STEP – Preliminary assessment
Pre-assumption: hydrogeologically NOT homogenous
Thiessen polygons reflecting site density
Calculation of Thiessen polygons around each site
Average area per aquifer type (porous, karst, fractured)
For each site: comparison of polygon area to the average area represented by all sites of an aquifer type.

17. Groups of groundwater bodies Thiessen polygons
Classification
Class 1: lower or equal to average
Class 2: between average and 2-times average
Class 3: between 2-times and 4-times average
Class 4: larger than 4 times average area
No site
Average polygon areas calculated
Porous media: 48 km²/site
Fractured media: 114 km²/site
Karstic media: 99 km²/site

18. Groups of groundwater bodies Thiessen polygons

19. Groups of groundwater bodies Thiessen polygons
Cl … Class
sites < 3
3 <= sites < 5
5 <= sites < 10
sites >= 10
Cl 4 > 0 %
Cl 4 = 0 %
Cl 3 > 50 %
Cl 4 = %
Cl 3 <= 50 %
Deviation classes from average
Network representative
Cl 4 … > 400%
Network partially representative
Cl 3 …
Network not representative

20. Groups of groundwater bodies Thiessen polygons
2. STEP - Final assessment of network
Local expertise whether the network reflects the hydrogeological conditions in a representative way!

21. Network adaptation
Local expertise assessing information of Art. 5 Analyses e.g.:
GW-flow direction,
Point and diffuse sources of pollution,
Soil characteristics,
Overlying strata
Sampling site density and spatial distribution
Hydrogeological representativity …

22. Example: information used for network adaptation
Karte aus Ist-Zustandsanalyse einfügen- GW- Schichtenlinien, Einflussfaktoren .... was gut aussieht!
Example: information used for network adaptation MEAN DISTANCE TO GW

23. Example: information used for network adaptation DIFFUSE POLLUTION

24. Example: information used for network adaptation CORINE LANDCOVER - SITE

25. Example: information used for network adaptation HYDROLOGY

26. Schedule Network to be adapted by end of 2005
Tendering procedure in 2006
Monitoring network operative by Dec 2006

27. Representative Groundwater Quality Monitoring network in Austria
Austrian experience in implementation of Directive 2000/60/EC requirements
Andreas Scheidleder
Umweltbundesamt - Austria