1. Guidance document on the identification of water bodies
Water Directors’ Meeting
21/22 November 2002
Guidance document on the identification of water bodies
Agenda item 3.4

2. Identification of water bodies - why?
Issue
Identification of water bodies - why?
no objective but basic tool for implementing many provisions such as typology, status and monitoring
geographical unit that objectives of the WFD are related to
key unit for reporting and assessing compliance

3. Process
Nov. 2001: WD agreed in Ghent on the preparation of a horizontal guidance on water bodies
Feb. 2002: drafting group was set up led by DG Environment
March to Oct. 2002: several consultation rounds with drafting group, SCG and EAF GW
April 2002: first draft circulated to SCG
June 2002: Preliminary discussion on WD in Valencia
Nov 2002: final draft (version 9.0) presented to Water Directors

4. Key points
WFD covers all waters, water bodies are introduced as a delineation or sub-division
“Water body should be a coherent sub-unit in the river basin (district) to which the environmental objectives of the directive must apply”
flexibility and adaptation to national and regional conditions
balanced approach - “not too few, not too many”

5. Key elements (surface waters)
Water categories (river, lakes, transitional and coastal waters)
typology (water bodies must be of one type)
discrete and significant elements (distinct physical features)
HMWB and AWB
other criteria such as status and protected areas

6. Example (category)

7. Example (typology)

8. Example (physical features)

9. Key elements (groundwater)
Aquifers (significant flow and abstractions)
delineation of groundwater bogies taking account of geological and hydraulic boundaries and description of status
upper and lower boundaries

10. Key element (general)
Aggregation of water bodies
foreseen for pressure and impact analysis
possible under certain circumstances for monitoring, reporting and management
further specification on grouping of water bodies for reporting purposes should be discussed in the EAF Reporting

11. Open points
All open points could be resolved on the last SCG meeting with the exception of:
FIN reservation on recommended threshold for small water bodies (page 12)

12. Next steps
Case studies will not be integrated in guidance but provided on WFD CIRCA
Subject to agreement, final editing and formatting
Adaptation of other guidance documents (e.g monitoring) to be consistent with final text
Water bodies guidance should be tested in all pilot river basins