WATER AND SOIL TIMES – Issue 12, May 2005

A newsletter for the “Water Cycle and Soil Related Aspects” activities in the European Commissions Directorate General for Research.

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EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM FOR SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY

The Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry is a joint initiative of Cefic (European Chemical Industry Council), EuropaBio (The European Association for Bioindustries) facilitated by DG Research. It has been set up in close dialogue between the partners following contacts starting already in 2002, and upon a formal invitation from Commissioner Philippe Busquin in November 2003.

The platform was officially announced during an event in Brussels on 6 July 2004.

The establishment of the Platform aims to boost chemical research, development and innovation in Europe. The objectives are to foster the development of innovative chemistry and technologies that contribute to sustainability and ongoing competitiveness of the European chemical industry, through:

  • the development of leading-edge advances in environmentally respectful, energy efficient, resource efficient processes and product technologies in three main technology innovation areas: Industrial (white) biotechnology, Materials technology and Reaction and process design.
  • research activities that address key aspects of health-safety-environment impacts
  • actions that may allow identifying and addressing major barriers to innovation

The Platform consists of a network of strategic and intellectual alliances that bridge academia, industry, regulators and relevant stakeholders, to foster the whole innovation process from idea to product launch.

Three working groups will coordinate the three main technology areas:

  • Industrial biotechnology
  • Materials technologies
  • Reaction and process design

Moreover, a horizontal working group is being set up, which takes care of barriers and constraints to innovation, dealing with “New Technology” Communications, Testing Alternatives, Socio-economic impacts and Health, Safety and Environmental issues.

A draft vision document ("European Technology Platform for SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY: The vision for 2020 and beyond "), set up by a working group, was adopted in the second stakeholder workshop in Barcelona on 4 March 2005. Please consult the webpage from which the launch and vision documents can be downloaded. The activities of the platform will be published widely through this website.

A mirror group, consisting of representatives of Member States, has been set up. It will allow coordination with national initiatives and projects, ensure a two-way flow of information from and towards the working groups, and act as a discussion forum for Member States. The mirror group has already met twice in 2005.

The platform is currently, through 4 working groups, working on Strategic Research Agendas, which are expected to be adopted by the end of 2005. The platform secretariat in CEFIC will generate regular newsflashes by e-mail, to which interested persons can subscribe.

Technology Platform contact: Mr Marian Mours: (mailto: ; tel: +32 2 676 73 87). Commission services contact: Mr Andrea Tilche, DG Research (mailto: ; tel: +32 2 299 63 42).

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WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM

The Water Supply and Sanitation Platform (WSTTP) is progressing well. The four thematic and the horizontal working groups are at the stage of concluding their individual contributions with regard to first draft vision documents, strategic research agendas and the implementation plans. In fact draft documents have been already produced by the working group 2 (water for people), the working group 3 (water for industry) and the working group 4 (water in agriculture). These documents are already available at the Platform’s website ( for consultation and comments. The documents provides an overview of the major issues and challenges facing the water industry, the agriculture and the water supply and sanitation sector in urban, peri-urban and rural areas, gives information on the various stakeholders needs and identifies the types of research needed to make each sector more sustainable both economically and environmentally. On the basis of these documents, an overall vision document is being drafted. The vision paints a picture of what can be achieved if research and development resources are made available to respond to the main water supply and sanitation issues.

WSSTP is getting more and more visibility. The relevance and potential impact of this stakeholders-driven initiative will be presented next 13th June 2005 in Madrid at the Centro de estudios hidrográficos del CEDEX. Further details are available from mailto:.

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The WEKNOW (Web-based European Knowledge Network on Water) FP5 project, a concerted action in the field of drinking water, is organizing its 2ND CONFERENCE in Bratislava, Slovak republic, from 13-15 June 2005. The 2nd WEKNOW Conference intends to present the state of European science on drinking water quality with emphasis on research outcomes that assist in risk assessment and risk management strategies. The invited presentations will be delivered by leading experts in the European drinking water sector, representatives of the European Commission and WHO.

The main discussion themes are:

  • Research aspects of risk assessment/risk management strategies and Drinking Water Safety Plans
  • Review of on-going European drinking water research, its recent progress and challenges

The conference will facilitate:

  • Exchange of information between researchers, end-users (operators, industry) and regulators
  • Knowledge sharing and transfer among EU Member States, Associated and Eastern European countries

The conference will also host the final workshop of another EU funded project (MICRORISK) aiming to develop an harmonized framework and a quantitative microbiological risk assessment approach for managing drinking water safety from source to tap. More information about the WEKNOW project and the Bratislava conference is available at

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WORKSHOP ON "WHERE DO FERTILIERS GO?"

The Soil and Waste Unit of the European Commission Joint Research Centre is organising a workshop entitled "Where do Fertilisers go?” This workshop aims to assess and to improve the understanding of the fate of fertilisers from agriculture, by investigating the nitrogen and phosphorus surplus lost towards soil, air and ground and surface waters.

Three major topics will be covered by invited speakers:

  • Measurement techniques to assess the fate of fertilisers in the environment (soil, water, air)
  • Modelling nutrient fate and losses
  • Best practices in combating pollution originating from fertiliser from agriculture.

You are kindly invited to attend this workshop that will take place in Belgirate (Northern Italy) on 28-29 June 2005. The number of available places is limited to 50, so please register as soon as possible. You will find all necessary registration information on the following website:

Additional information may be obtained from mailto:.

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HARMONICOP CONFERENCE

The final conference of the EU-funded project Harmonising Colloborative Planning (HarmoniCOP) will take place on Tuesday, the 4th of October in Osnabrueck, Germany. Results on Participation in Water Management and the European Water Framework Directive will be highlighted from different perspectives:

  • Participation and use of Models and Tools
  • Fostering Social Learning
  • Participation in Europe - Differences and Similarities

See For more information, please contact Dagmar Ridder on mailto:.

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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: Innovation, advances and implementation of flood forecasting technologies, 17-19 October 2005, Tromso, Norway

This international conference is organised in the context of three major European Commission funded research projects into flood forecasting: FLOODMAN ( FLOODRELIEF ( and ACTIF ( It aims to present the latest results of these projects and explore how floods can be mitigated via improvements in forecasting and how uncertainties in flood forecasting may be communicated to users.

For more information about the conference see the following web site:

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1ST EMCO WORKSHOP - Analysis and removal of contaminants from wastewaters for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), 20-21 October 2005, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

EMCO (Reduction of environmental risks, posed by Emerging Contaminants, through advanced treatment of municipal and industrial wastes), is a FP6 Specific Targeted Research Project funded by the Specific programme: Integrating and Strengthening the European Research Area, Activity area: Specific measures in support of international cooperation. Duration: 36 months, started in July 2004.

EMCO focuses on tracing of emerging contaminants in industrial and municipal wastewaters and on their removal by advanced water treatment technologies. Emphasis is on the application of small units for the treatment of industrial and municipal effluents with the objective to reduce environmental and health risks due to improvement of the quality of receiving surface waters.

Deadline for registration and abstract submission: September 15th 2005. For more information about the workshop and the registration form, see the following web address:

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EURODEMO - European Co-Ordination Action for Demonstration of Efficient Soil and Groundwater Remediation

From the beginning of 2005 a new platform was established with the ambition to boost technology demonstration in the field of soil and groundwater remediation. EURODEMO is an initiative funded by the European Commission, DG Research, and includes a large European consortium covering the whole spectrum of relevant stakeholders. Top priorities are to make demonstration of promising soil and groundwater technologies easier to implement, to harmonise performance evaluation of demonstrated technologies and to generate an overview of existing funding opportunities and already demonstrated technologies. Furthermore, EURODEMO shall make sure that investors obtain a better overview of the innovation potential in Europe and shall pave the way for transnational co-operation and joint funding of technology demonstration.

EURODEMO aims to be the principal European co-ordination activity for soil and groundwater remediation technology demonstrations, by:

  • preparing a detailed database of remediation projects demonstrating (innovative / promising) remediation technologies,
  • creating a database of funding resources available for demonstration projects,
  • working to reduce the barriers which hamper the use of promising soil and groundwater remediation technologies, and
  • promoting the harmonisation of quality criteria for the reporting of soil and groundwater remediation demonstration projects.

More Information: Contact: Gundula Prokop (mailto:), Austrian Federal Environment Agency.

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The DANUBS (Nutrient Management in the Danube Basin and its Impact on the Black Sea) EVK1-CT-2000-00051 project has reached its end.

The project addressed the sources, pathways, stocks, losses and sinks of nutrients in the large river catchment, the effects of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and silica) on the receiving ecosystems with special emphasis on the coastal areas, developed management tools for nutrients in the Danube Basin and scenarios for nutrient management and the effect on water quality and the status of Western Black Sea shelf ecosystem.

Its main achievements are:

  • The completion of a harmonised regional database and the implementation of the Emission Model (MONERIS) on the scale of the Danube River basin which shows tremendous geographical, meteorological, hydrological and socio-economical gradients. This in itself is an unprecedented achievement.
  • Integration of long term (50 year) field data and model results to solve data gaps and data consistency questions. The analysis of the long term changes of the different diffuse and point source emissions and nutrient loads in the Danube shows that changes of the point source emissions are responsible for the changes of the phosphorus loads. For nitrogen the increase of the diffuse emissions from agriculture is the main reason for the increase of the load within the 1960s and 1970s. The dramatic changes within the agriculture of the Eastern countries of the Danube are up to now not reflected in corresponding load reductions due to the long residence times in groundwater and the high sensitivity of the nitrogen load to the hydrological conditions.
  • Development of a coupled application of MONERIS with the Danube Water Quality Model and the Danube Delta Model. The latter two models explicitly resolve the temporal variability of the water quality (on a daily basis) as well as the fate of N and P (speciation and transformations).The developed methodology allows the joint assessment of the impact of (long term) emission changes and (short term) hydrological events.
  • A revised Danube Delta Model. The project clearly demonstrates, contrary to prevailing beliefs, that the Delta does not retain a relevant fraction of the Danube River nutrient loads. An interesting question for future water management is the potential effect of the possible future restoration of the delta (“decanalisation”). The tools developed in daNUbs are suited to answer this question.
  • For the first time nutrient emission, transport and transformation models for river basins were successfully linked to physical and biological models for the Western Black Sea shelf area influenced by the Danube.
  • Changes in nutrient management show delayed effects in water quality for N and particulate P due to the long retention time in the groundwater (N) and in the soil (P). On contrary, the effects of a reduction of dissolved P emissions from point sources can be observed very fast.
  • A number of indicators were derived and critical loads were defined (with a certain range of uncertainty) from marine ecological data which can be used for efficient monitoring of the Black Sea coastal area status.
  • The situation in the North-Western Black Sea shallow waters has improved considerably since the early 90s due to reduced nutrient inputs, causing reduced eutrophication.
  • The limiting factor for phytoplankton growth in the eutrophic areas of the N-W-Black Sea is phosphorus. In the offshore waters mainly nitrogen limits the primary productivity.
  • Scenario calculations clearly show that the economic development in the Danube Basin may reverse the improving situation of the quality of the North-Western and Western Black Sea ecosystem, if nutrients are not managed properly.
  • It is recommended to apply a strong precautionary principle regarding nutrient emission based on best available techniques for waste water treatment (point sources) and best available agricultural practice for reduction of nutrient losses from agricultural areas (diffuse sources) as such a management policy meets both protection of ground and surface water quality in the catchment area and coastal eutrophication abatement in the North-Western and Western Black Sea shallow waters.

Project homepage:

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PROJECTS UNDER NEGOTIATION

SUSTDEV-2004-3.II.3.2.2, Advances in membrane bio-reactor technologies for municipal wastewater treatment

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AMEDEUS - Accelerate Membrane Development for Urban Sewage Purification

Project summary:

Over the past decade, membrane bioreactors have been increasingly implemented to purify municipal wastewater. However, even with submerged membranes which offer the lowest costs, the MBR technology remains in most cases more expensive than conventional processes. In addition, the European municipal MBR market is to date a duopoly of two non-European producers, despite many initiatives to develop local MBR filtration systems. The proposed AMEDEUS research project aims at tackling both issues, accelerating the development of competitive European MBR filtration technologies, as well as increasing acceptance of the MBR process through decreased capital and operation costs. The project will target the two markets for MBR technology in Europe: the construction of small plants (semi-central, 50 to 2,000pe, standardized and autonomous), and the medium-size plants (central, up to 100.000pe) for plant upgrade. Technological development of new MBR systems will be fostered by a consortium composed of 12 partners, of which five SMEs proposing novel concepts of low-cost and high-performance filtration systems. Two end-users, three non-profit institutions and two universities, all of them well versed in R&D in the MBR field, will investigate solutions to reduce operation costs such as fouling control, membrane cleaning optimisation, aeration decrease, or optimise capital costs through improved implementation of membrane bioreactor process. Furthermore, an analysis of the potential for standardisation will be performed, and a technology transfer towards Southern and Eastern Europe will be organised in order to facilitate the penetration of these new markets. AMEDEUS will achieve concrete and realistic technological breakthroughs for the MBR technology, and improve the current process engineering and operation practices. It will improve the competitiveness of the MBR European market and render common this high-tech process for municipal wastewater treatment.

Project co-ordinator: Dr. Boris Lesjean, Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin gGmbH (DE)

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EUROMBRA - Membrane bioreactor technology (MBR) with an EU perspective for advanced municipal wastewater treatment strategies for the 21st century

Project summary:

The World is running out of clean, safe, fresh water. By 2025 one third of humanity (ca. 3 billion people) will face severe water scarcity. This has been described as the "single greatest threat to health, the environment and global food security". Water is essential and preservation of its safety in quantity and in quality is critical to the sustainable development of any society. The goal of this project is to make a contribution to meet this challenge. The protection of water in the European Union has been encouraged through the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The intention of WFD is to protect water resources (quality and quantity) through an integrated water resource management policy. Wastewater treatment is an important aspect of water management. Efficient, cost effective treatment processes are needed for transforming wastewater into water free from contamination which can be returned to the hydrological cycle without detrimental effects. The development and application of MBR for full scale municipal wastewater treatment is the most important recent technical advance in terms of biological wastewater treatment. It represents a decisive step further concerning effluent quality by delivering a hygienically pure effluent and by exhibiting a very high operational reliability. The overall objective of EUROMBRA is to develop a cost-effective, sustainable solution for new, efficient and advanced municipal wastewater treatment based on MBR technology. This will be achieved through a multi-faceted, concerted and cohesive research programme explicitly linking key limiting phenomena (fouling, clogging) observed and quantified on the micro-, meso-, and macro-scale. Key to the success of the programme is the harnessing specialist knowledge, conducting of dedicated yet interlinked experiments and incorporating key aspects of both system design and operational facets, the latter encompassing hydrodynamics and mass transfer, foulant speciation and dynamic impacts