WFD Intercalibration Phase 2 : Milestone 2 Report (For ECOSTAT Meeting 8-9 April 2009)

WFD Intercalibration Phase 2 : Milestone 2 report (for ECOSTAT meeting 8-9 April 2009)

The new IC guidance foresees a ‘Milestone 2’ report for the spring of 2010, with the following key elements:

- Overview of the national assessment methods that will be intercalibrated;

- Results of WFD compliance and feasibility check;

- Data set collection;

- Design of IC procedure and development of IC common metric;

- Progress on Benchmarking and Boundary comparison/setting.

All GIGs are kindly requested to submit their progress reports for the relevant quality elements following this template as much as possible.

Also, you are requested to update the relevant sections of the intercalibration work plan (distributed as a separate document).

Depending on how the work has been organized, we expect one response for each quality element for each of the GIGs. In case of horizontal activities (e.g. large rivers) or where the work is carried out cross-GIG (e.g. fish in rivers), one coordinated response is expected.

The questions in the reporting template follow the new intercalibration guidance as closely as possible. Please contact the IC steering group if you need any further clarifications:

 Wouter van de Bund - Rivers;

 Sandra Poikane - Lakes;

 Wendy Bonne - Coastal waters;

 Nikolaos Zampoukas - Transitional waters.

Please send your responses before 22nd March 2010 both to and for coastal and transitional waters and also where Mediterranean lagoons are involved.

1: Organisation

1.1. Responsibilities

Please indicate how the work is organised, indicating the lead country/person and the list of involved experts of every country (Provide your list of experts to update the attached contact overview where needed / when not done yet)

The new GIG Black Sea Coordinator: Gabriel Chiriac, Romania

Romania lead: Otilia Antonaru

Bulgaria lead: Elitsa Hineva

BQE-Romanian proposals:

Macroinvertebrates: Camelia Dumitrache (lead), Valeria Abaza, Ramona Bercea, Virginia Schroder, Luminita Gheorghe

Bulgaria: Black sea Basin Directorate (BSBD) is a water management authority created with the aim for implementation of integrated water management principles according to the requirements of WFD 2000/60. It is a regional structure to the Ministry of Environment and waters. The geographical area managed by BSBD is covering the Bulgarian part of Black sea watershed area, Black sea coastal waters and ground waters.

Responsible phytoplankton expert: Mrs. Violeta Velikova

Responsible macrozoobenthos expert: Mrs. Valentina Todorova

Responsible macrphytobenthos expert: Mr. Dimitar Berov

Contact person: Elitsa Hineva

The following overview clarifies which countries have checked their contacts in the list:

1.2. Participation

Please indicate which countries are participating in your group. Are there any difficulties with the participation of specific Member States? If yes, please specify

The participating countries: Romania and Bulgaria

1.3. Meetings

Please list the meetings of the group (including planned future meetings) in 2010

13.01.2010, Varna, Bulgaria

Planned technical meetings:

- Spring 2010 - April (in Constanta?), Autumn 2010 - Octombrie/November (in Varna?)

Common sampling campaign(s) – not established yet

2. Overview of Methods to be intercalibrated

Identify for each MS:

- the national classification method that will be intercalibrated

- the status of the method (e.g., finalized formally agreed national method, intercalibratable finalized method (scientifically ready for intercalibration, maybe not formally approved by authorities yet), method under development, no method yet)

- whether the WISER questionnare has been completed for the method

Do you have sufficient information of the national classification methods that will be intercalibrated to carry out the compliance and feasibility checks? Please, specify information gaps

3. Checking of compliance of national assessment methods with the WFD requirements

What is the progress with the compliance checking? (1 – completed; 2 – in progress; 3 – not started); in case of ‘completed’ or ‘in progress’, please fill in the detailed information below; if ‘not started’, indicate the reasons.

Make separate considerations for coastal and transitional waters.

Describe the WFD compliance checking process and results (the table below lists the criteria from the IC guidance with relevant WISER questionnaire questions, please add more criteria where considered relevant).

Make a separate table for coastal and transitional waters.

This refers to Question 1 in the IC guidance: Q1. Do all national assessment methods meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive?

1. Ecological status is classified by one of five classes (high, good, moderate, poor and bad).

1. High, good and moderate ecological status are set in line with the WFD’s normative definitions (Boundary setting procedure)

1. All relevant parameters indicative of the biological quality element are covered (see Table 1 in the IC Guidance). A combination rule to combine parameter assessment into BQE assessment has to be defined. If parameters are missing, Member States need to demonstrate that the method is sufficiently indicative of the status of the QE as a whole

1. Assessment is adapted to intercalibration common types that are defined in line with the typological requirements of the Annex II WFD and approved by WG ECOSTAT

1. The water body is assessed against type-specific near-natural reference conditions

1. Assessment results are expressed as EQRs:

1. Sampling procedure allows for representative information about water body quality/ecological status in space and time

1. All data relevant for assessing the biological parameters specified in the WFD’s normative definitions are covered by the sampling procedure

1. Selected taxonomic level achieves adequate confidence and precision in classification

1. Other criteria 1

1. Other criteria 2

1. Other criteria 3

Summarise the conclusions of the compliance checking