Strategic Coordination Group Eutrophication Guidance 27/28 October 2004 Agenda item 6.4 - Eutrophication Guidance State-of-play

Starting Point Mandate agreed by Water Directors in Dublin First Workshop on Eutrophication held in Ispra on 14/15 September Invitaion to all EU Member States, other stakeholders and NGOs also represented Documents available on WFD CIRCA (folder “E-WGs”, sub-folder “eutrophication activity”)

Extended Steering Group DG Environment Joint Research Centre ECOSTAT Leaders (DE, UK) EEA 2 member states (FIN and NL) Assisted by a technical secretariat

Workshop documents Guidance on eutrophication assessment: overview of the requirements for eutrophication assessment in different EU directives and conventions conceptual framework of the eutrophication process ECOSTAT discussion paper on principles of ecological status classification in relation to eutrophication Agreement on workshop to incorporate the two papers

Conceptual framework It was agreed that the conceptual framework provides a good basis for describing the critical processes/ effects of eutrophication in both marine areas and freshwaters Experts in different water body categories suggested changes to the model - generalised to represent all surface water categories, by means of adjusting the terminology and linkages in the diagram

as a component of the OSPAR COMPP Conceptual Framework of the main NUTRIENT INPUTS SUPPORTING ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS physical and hydrodynamic aspects, and climatic/weather conditions (e.g. flushing, wind, temperature, light availability), TRANSBOUNDARY TRANSPORT INCREASED (WINTER) DIN & DIP CONCENTRATIONS & NUTRIENT RATIOS TRANSBOUNDARY NUTRIENT FLUXES increase in primary production increase in turbidity nuisance / toxic algal species (cell concentration) increase in phytoplankton biomass (chl-a) organic matter degree of oxygen deficiency (during growing season) shift from long-lived to short-lived nuisance macrophyte species and reduced depth distribution foam macrophytobenthos biomass and primary production decrease in light regime toxins increase bacteria zoobenthos / fish kills & benthic community structure Ecosystem structure (+) (-) II I III IV as a component of the OSPAR COMPP Conceptual Framework of the main cause/effect relationships proposed

Table of contents of guidance Working Title: “Assessment of eutrophication in European water policy”  Draft Table of contents:          1 Introduction Context History and scientific context of eutrophication assessment Scope of the document Purpose of the document Process of document development         2 Overview and common understanding on regulation of eutrophication in international policies 2.1Overview on Eutrophication in EU legislation (WFD, NiD, UWWD, others) Factual, brief presentation of relevant issues  2.2  Overview Eutrophication in other international policies (OSPAR, HELCOM, others) 2.3  Common understanding WFD CIS guidance document Common understanding relevant to eutrophication presented in the various CIS guidance document Next steps and open questions 2.4  Common understanding of the links/similarities/differences between the methodologies developed under different policies

3.2 Description of the conceptual eutrophication assessment framework 3 Overall conceptual framework for the assessment of eutrophication 3.1 Requirements/Principles for the development of a conceptual framework 3.2 Description of the conceptual eutrophication assessment framework 3.3 Explanation of the overall conceptual eutrophication assessment framework 4 (Examples for) Classification criteria for the application of the conceptual framework 5 Examples/case studies for the application of the conceptual framework 6  Monitoring Best Practices and proposals for harmonising reporting 7 Toolbox and best practices on applying the conceptual framework 8  Conclusions and future work 

Three new chapters were suggested A chapter on monitoring Specify aspects in the existing Guidance on Monitoring relevant for eutrophication assessment How to monitor pressures (nutrient loading) from different sources How to harmonise the monitoring in a way to satisfy the requirements in the different directives dealing with eutrophication Recommendations for reporting results from eutrophication assessments and monitoring chapter on forthcoming tasks and next steps, e.g. link of assessment to pressures, sources and cost-effective measures.

Timetable next steps Oct: Meeting report Revision of the guidance: 24 Sept: Written comments (mainly chapter 2) 4 Oct: Revised guidance (chapters 1-4) Comments by Eutro Network directly to SCG members REVISION NOT COMPLETED YET 27/28 Oct: Discussion SCG on what to present to WD 19 Nov: Presentation to Water Directors on whether the process is going in the right direction Nov. 2004: Next steering group to organise follow-up First half 2005: Next Eutrophication workshop (to be further discussed in Steering Group)