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

2. 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”)

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

8. 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

9. 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 

10. 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.

11. 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)