RIVERS MED – ALL BQES
/ EUROPEAN COMMISSIONDIRECTORATE GENERAL JRC
JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE
Institute of Environment and Sustainability
WFD Intercalibration Phase 2 : Milestone 1 report (for ECOSTAT meeting 1-2 October 2009)
Water category/GIG/BQE/ horizontal activity: / RIVERS/MEDITERRANEAN RIVERSMEDITERRANEAN GIG
Information provided by: / Maria Teresa Ferreira (coordinator)
MEDITERRANEAN GIG Organisation - Overall
Responsibilities and participation
Please indicate how the work is organised, indicating the lead country/person.
Portugal is leading the intercalibration exercise in Mediterranean rivers through the National Water Institute. Each BQE (except Fish BQE) has a Portuguese leader. For Fish the intercalibration exercise work is being developed within a Cross-GIG group, within which Portugal also leads the regional subgroup. The BQE leaders contact and meet with the MS participating in the exercise and do report writing. The BQE leaders have a general coordinator, M. Teresa Ferreira, who reports results to the Rivers Steering Group and the ECOSTAT. At least one general meeting of Mediterranean GIG representatives, BQE experts and BQE coordinators is organized per year (2008: Lisbon, Portugal; 2009: Nikosia, Cyprus) .
Are there any difficulties with the participation of specific Member States? If yes, please specify
All MS countries having Mediterranean rivers are participating, with different degrees of involvement, in this second IC exercise, with the exception of Malta.
Water category/GIG/BQE/ horizontal activity: / River/Mediterranean GIG/InvertebratesInformation provided by: / Maria João Feio
1: Organisation
1.1. Responsibilities and participation
Please indicate how the work is organised, indicating the lead country/person.
Macroinvertebrates working group leader: Maria João Feio, Portugal. Meeting organization, collection of data and reporting. At least one BQE meeting per year (2009: Milan, Italy).
Are there any difficulties with the participation of specific Member States? If yes, please specify
Participating countries: Portugal, France, Spain, Cyprus, Slovenia and Italy. Until now, there was no macroinvertebrate expert from Greece in the meetings though a contact person was found, and whiling to represent Greece, but with no access to the data set previously used (1st phase of IC).
1.2. Work plan, Timetables and deadlines
Annex 1 to this questionnaire contains the GIG work plans as presented at ECOSTAT in April 2008 Please provide an updated version the general work plan for your GIG below
GIG / Last update:Quality element
Overview of results achieved to date and issues to complete/improve:
- Intercalibration completed at the quality element level focusing on ‘general pressure’ (including nutrient pressure and hydromorphology)
- Results apply to four river types occurring in the GIG, not covering large rivers (catchment area >1000 km2)
- Assessment methods of all six Member States in the GIG are included in the Intercalibration Decision.
- Need for refinement of methodology and criteria for setting reference conditions.
Scope of the continuation work:
1. Refinement of methodology and criteria for setting reference conditions in Mediterranean rivers
2. Translation of the IC results to national systems.
3. Intercalibration of new methods and methods of new member states (Slovenia)
4. Implications of temporal variability in the assessments of Mediterranean rivers
5. Intercalibration of assessment methods for large rivers (dependent on the cross-GIG working group for large rivers)
Estimated timetable for the completion of the work:
- Reference conditions (1): end of 2009
- Translation of the IC results to national systems (2): 2010
- Intercalibration of new methods (3): continuous process depending of MS method development 2009-2011
- Temporal variability (4): no time table established yet 2010-2011
- Large rivers (5): no timetable established yet 2010-2011
Comments:
The MedGIG_invertebrates members are working since mid 2008 on aim 1) and started with the elaboration of a template for gathering data to analyse the criteria and variables to set reference condition for Mediterranean streams. The last version of the template was discussed and finished during a meeting in Milan (May 2009) with the presence of Portugal, France, Spain, Cyprus, Slovenia and Italy. The template is presently being filled by the member states and the final deadline is October 15, 2009.
2: Methods to be intercalibrated
2.1. Overview of Member States providing national assessment methods
Do you have an overview of the national classification methods that will be intercalibrated? If not: when will this information be available
This applies only to the new country in MedGIG (Slovenia) and maybe to new methods from France and Spain (not yet available). All the other countries will maintain the assessment methods from the 1st phase of IC (available in the 1st Phase IC final report). The verification of boundaries compliance will be done by each member state individually and presented to the group. The latter applies e.g. to Cyprus whose method for R-M5 river type is pending.
2.2. Checking of compliance of national assessment methods with the WFD requirements
What are the arrangements in the GIG to verify the compliance of national assessment methods with the WFD requirements? Has the GIG already started an evaluation of the compliance of national assessment methods with WFD requirements? Please give a short report on how this is done (or will be done)
This was done during the 1st IC phase (available in the 1st Phase IC final report). The same methodology will be used to analyse compliance by the Slovenian MS and new indices (not yet available) from France and , Spain and Cyprus.
2.3: Progress on Feasibility checking: method acceptance criteria
The intercalibration process ideally covers all national assessment methods within a Geographical Intercalibration Group. However, the comparison of dissimilar methods (“apples and oranges”) has to be avoided.
Intercalibration exercise is focused on specific type / biological quality element / pressure combination. The intercalibration guidance foresees an “IC feasibility check” to narrow the actual intercalibration analysis to methods that address the same common type(s), the same anthropogenic pressure(s), and follow a similar assessment concept.
The task of the GIG is compilation of groups including similar assessment methods, and evaluation of “outlying” methods. A feasibility check includes coverage of intercalibration types, pressures and method concept. The aim of the check is to address if all national methods address the same common type(s) and pressure(s), and follow a similar assessment concept.
· Has the GIG evaluated if intercalibration is feasible in terms of typology? Are the common type delineations suited for the specific BQE intercalibration exercise? Are all assessment methods appropriate for the intercalibration water body types ? Are any types going to be added?
Most of this work was done during the first phase. Only one type (large rivers) still needs to be intercalibrated for macroinvertebrates. More data likely will be made available for R-M5 from Slovenia and Cyprus (results from the 1st phase only included data from Italy, Spain and Portugal).
· Has the GIG evaluated if intercalibration is feasible in terms of pressures? Do all national methods address the same pressure(s)?
The evaluation of the existent pressure data is presently being done and compiled into common variables. After compilation, a checking can be made if national methods respond likewise to the same pressures.
· Has the GIG evaluated if intercalibration is feasible in terms of assessment concept? Do all national methods follow a similar assessment concept? If the GIG previously encountered problems with regard to checking comparability of dissimilar methods, how are these resolved?
This was described for the macroinvertebrates in the final report of the 1st IC exercise. Work for new methods will be done in 2010.
2.4: Progress on Collection of IC dataset and Design the work for IC procedure
3.1. Collection of IC dataset
Please describe progress on data collection within the GIG
To fulfil the aim 1) of the 2nd phase we are collecting data from reference sites. Two deadlines were set to collect all data (end of June for R-M1 and R-M4 and mid October for R-M2 and R-M5). The first deadline is already due and part of the countries sent their data sets and we are expecting the data from the others soon (France, Slovenia, Cyprus, France and Portugal sent data sets already).
2.4: Progress on Reference conditions/benchmarking
Which actions are ongoing/planned to compare reference conditions (including the results of the first phase) and boundary setting?
A template was elaborated and discussed among all member states in order to gather comparable information (new data and data from the 1st phase). These data sets will be later analysed together.
2.5. Design the work for IC procedure
Please describe progress of choice of the appropriate intercalibration option.
In general terms, the MedGIG has followed for Rivers the hybrid Option 2 described in the ECOSTAT Boundary Setting Protocol.
3. Further comments
Water category/GIG/BQE/ horizontal activity: / River/Mediterranean GIG/PhytobenthosInformation provided by: / Salomé F. P. de Almeida
1: Organisation
1.1. Responsibilities and participation
Please indicate how the work is organised, indicating the lead country/person.
Phytobenthos working group leader: Salomé F. P. de Almeida, Portugal. Meeting organization, collection of data, reporting. At least one BQE meeting per year (2009: Bordeaux, France).
Are there any difficulties with the participation of specific Member States? If yes, please specify
All MS except Malta and Greece (Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Slovenia and Portugal) are participating in the second IC Exercise of the BQE Phytobenthos. MS will make their data base (abiotic and biotic) available for the second IC Exercise. At the moment (7th September 2009), data was delivered by Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Slovenia and Portugal, although with many gaps of information.
1.2. Work plan, Timetables and deadlines
Annex 1 to this questionnaire contains the the GIG work plans as presentedat ECOSTAT in April 2008 Please provide an updated version the general work plan for your GIG below
GIG / Med / Last update: 8th SeptemberQuality element / Phytobenthos
Overview of results achieved to date (1st IC Exercise):
- Intercalibration done in 1st IC includes results from three MS of the six sharing the GIG types.
- Results apply to five common types occurring in the GIG, however for one of the types (RM5) the results should be interpreted as very preliminary
Issues to complete/improve:
o Intercalibration of Phytobenthos’ methodologies will be repeated in the 2nd phase of the IC Exercise because:
- Slovenia is a new MS for the Med GIG in this 2nd IC Exercise;
- France has updated and modified the official Index used (IBD);
- Countries that did not participate in the 1st IC Exercise now have data for a 2nd IC (Italy and Cyprus);
- For the type RM5 the results were considered very preliminary in the 1st IC Exercise and it is possible to increase and improve the data set for this type.
· Need for refinement of methodology and criteria for setting reference conditions (dependent on the Cross-GIG working group for reference conditions).
Scope of the continuation work:
1. Translation of the IC results to national systems
2. Intercalibration of methods of MS not included in current results (Slovenia, Italy, Cyprus)
3. Intercalibration of updated/refined methods (IBD France)
4. Intercalibration of assessment methods for large rivers (to be done at the cross-GIG working group for large rivers)
5. Refinement of methodology and criteria for setting reference conditions and class boundaries between GIG MS (to be done at the Cross-GIG working group for reference conditions)
6. How to combine phytobenthos and macrophytes since they belong to the same QE (dependent on the development of Macrophytes methodologies)
7. Perform a ring test at the Cross-GIG level on benthic diatoms counting and identification for taxonomic harmonization. This ring test will take place in Luxembourg on the 26th and 27th of November.
Estimated timetable for the completion of the work:
- Translation of the IC results to national systems (1): end of 2010
- Intercalibration of additional/new methods (2 and 3): continuous process depending of MS method development 2009-2011
- Combination of macrophytes and phytobenthos (6) in 2010-2011
- Output of results from ring test (7): 2010.
Comments/summary:
The MedGIG phytobenthos members are working since mid 2008 on aim 1) and started with the elaboration of a template for gathering data to analyse the criteria and variables to set reference conditions for Mediterranean streams. The last version of the template was discussed and finished during a meeting in Bordeaux (January 2009) with the presence of Portugal, France, Spain, Cyprus, Slovenia and Italy. The gathering of data from MS was completed in August 2009. Most of the templates show gaps. The next step will be the harmonization of the templates from the 6 MS participating in the Med-GIG followed by the repetition of the IC exercise. Parallel work concerning horizontal issues is taking place at the Cross-GIG phytobenthos group (established in February 2009). A first meeting already took place (Netherlands, 2009). A workshop for diatom taxonomic harmonization, for IC purposes, is being organized for the end of this year.
2: Methods to be intercalibrated
2.1. Overview of Member States providing national assessment methods
Do you have an overview of the national classification methods that will be intercalibrated? If not: when will this information be available?
Spain and Portugal will maintain the assessment methods from the 1st IC Exercise (available in the 1st Phase IC final report). France has an updated method. Slovenia’s and Cyprus’ methods will be intercalibrated during the 2nd IC Exercise Italy does not have yet an official assessment method for phytobenthos.
The verification of boundaries compliance will be done by each member state individually according to the IC guidance recently produced and presented to the group.
2.2. Checking of compliance of national assessment methods with the WFD requirements
What are the arrangements in the GIG to verify the compliance of national assessment methods with the WFD requirements ? Has the GIG already started an evaluation of the compliance of national assessment methods with WFD requirements? Please give a short report on how this is done (or will be done)
This was done during the 1st IC phase (available in the 1st Phase IC final report). The same methodology will be used to analyse compliance by the Slovenian and Cypriotes MS and updated index from France.