Area 2: Sustainable management of resources ( incl. water resources management)

TEG 2.3: Harmonization of technological measures with ecosystem properties as a new management tool for IWRM, implementation of WFD, and other water-related Directives

CALL LINE 1
Application of eco-technical measures to upgrade aquatic ecosystem services.

Justification

Low-cost eco-technical measures, that stimulate the intrinsic self-purification properties of aquatic ecosystems, are urgently needed as complementary measures to conventional water management and treatment technologies. In order to harmonize and combine the two approaches of eco-technical and conventional measures in river basin management plans as well as in spatial planning, the understanding of the fluxes of pollutants, processes and ecological responses in water bodies exposed to different pressures must be improved. This improved understanding is needed to elaborate models to estimate flux and retention of pollutants for various combinations of measures. The identification of appropriate measures to address different pressures has to be based on comparative studies in demonstration cases representing different types of ecosystems and different pressures. Potential impacts of ecotechnical measures on ecosystem thresholds used to set the environmental targets of good status should also be addressed. Identification and development of simple measures and technical recommendations are needed also in the context of spatial planning, to secure enough space around the water bodies to significantly reduce negative effects of pressures. The economics of eco-technical measures should be evaluated by cost-benefit analysis and compared to conventional technical measures. Socio-economic bottlenecks for the implementation (such as land reclamation) should be identified and recommendations for solutions should be derived along with an extended impact assessment. The involvement of local stakeholders (e.g. water authorities, planners, general public) in demonstration cases is needed to raise awareness and enhance local participation in river basin management planning.

Specific objectives from perspective of the New Member States

To test, evaluate and demonstrate benefits of ecotechnical measures that enhance self-purification of water bodies for a more rapid and cost-efficient recovery of degraded lakes and rivers, with special focus on NMS/ACC.

Background / state-of-the-art

Innovative solutions are urgently needed to meet the challenges for the implementation of the WFD and other water-related Directives, the ambitious target of reaching good ecological status by 2015, given the socio-economic situation of NMS/ACC. Novel approaches should solve problems of degradation and pollution more efficiently, more rapidly and less costly, than conventional solutions based only on waste water treatment.
The aquatic ecosystems in NMS/ACC are facing a variety of pressures dating back to the past Soviet era, as well as through the ongoing conversion of society and economy. A large proportion of rivers, lakes and wetlands, as well as dependent terrestrial ecosystems show clear patterns of degradation and are at risk of failing the WFD objective of good status by 2015.
Three major pressures need to be addressed:

1. Persistent eutrophication and toxic algal blooms related to diffuse nutrient load from agricultural catchments and sewage pollution from households not connected to municipal sewer systems.
2. Major hydromorphological pressures related to river channelisation and regulation, degrading littoral zones of lakes and riparian areas in rivers.
3. Historical contamination from the early time of industrialization (e.g. mining, chemical and steel industries). The effluents of these legacies (e.g. mining waste dumps) are not controlled and contaminate groundwater, rivers, lakes and sediments. Any reduction in surface water flow can additionally influence and aggravate the situations.

The idea of harmonisation of technical infrastructure with ecosystem properties is based on the theoretical background of the ecohydrology concept (UNESCO). There is increasing evidence that this novel approach can speed up the recovery of water bodies to a ‘good ecological status’ at reduced costs.
Research needs to address issues related to water, biota, soil, and unsaturated and saturated zones. It also addresses all types of water bodies, including inland waters and coastal areas as well as wetlands and all transitional systems. According to the ecohydrological approach, operational procedures for the hydrotechnological infrastructures are to be developed, and multiple goals need to be addressed, e.g.,: social (e.g., flood protection, water supply), economic (e.g., hydropower production) and ecological (e.g., biodiversity conservation, re-establishment/conserving connectivity between terrestrial and aquatic habitats, and many others). Also lake restoration measures, such as flushing, aeration of deep waters, sediment dredging, as well as biomanipulation of fish populations to increase grazing pressure on phytoplankton are suited to enhance self-purification of degraded lake ecosystems. These methods may also address maintenance and remediation of the quality of water resources, while concomitantly improve ecosystem services and enable creation of positive socio-economic feedbacks to society (i.e. harvesting aquatic plant biomass for fuel production).
A further challenge is the integration of water resource management and ecohydrology into spatial planning and how to translate these concepts in an appropriate way into ‘spatial water related measures’. At the moment these issues are not considered within the physical planning schemes, they get hardly any political acceptance and finally also miss public recognition and acceptance. The general public, regional and local decision makers are lacking knowledge and understanding about the added value of a well-functioning ecosystem (high biodiversity, green corridor with fish, riparian vegetation and bird-life along a meandering river, higher property value, etc.), whereas land owners primarily worry about short-time economic losses, related to land reclamation.

Ongoing and completed projects on issues raised

• FP6: WELCOME, AQUATERRA, EUROHARP, SWITCH, REBECCA
• Interreg: INTEGRA, MAGIC
• NATO: SQUASH
• UNESCO/UNEP: Demonstration Project on Ecohydrology

Priorities of FP7 and WSSTP SRA addressed by objectives:

The call line refers to FP7, Theme Environment, Activity II – Sustainable Management of Resources:

• Assessing the Behaviour of River Basins
• Integrated Models for Integrated Management
• River Twinning Initiatives

and Activity III - Environmental Technologies, priority 1 - Environmental Technologies for the Sustainable Management and Conversation of the Natural and Man-made Environment.
It is also complied with WSSTP SRA: Research area 3.3 - Reducing Negative Environmental Impacts, and pilots themes:

• Sustainable water management inside and around large urban areas
• Reclamation of degraded water zones

Suggestion for most appropriate type of project:

Collaborative project(s) and 2 Specific Support Actions (preparatory: Network; Dissemination follow-up: Conferences and courses for planners and water managers)

Existing expertise

• Ecology and Ecohydrology
• Modelling
• Methods and indicators for ecological status assessment
• Spatial planning
• Toxic pollutants

Required expertise

• Hydrology
• Biology,
• Chemistry,
• Limnology
• Modelling and statistics
• Socio-Economics
• Landscape architecture
• Engineering

Further required
Partnership should be established with regions facing similar challenges for sustainable development of society regarding the economic situation and ecological challenges (Latin-America, Asia, Africa)

Gaps in knowledge

Current research and methods to improve ecosystem quality are focused on environmental protection through the reduction of threats to sustainable levels, and do not include the potential opportunities by enhancement of ecosystems self-purification potential and of their retention capacity for nutrients and other pollutants. Potential relevant measures to enhance the retention capacity of ecosystems should mainly be used in addition or as a supplement to effluent reductions in order to speed up recovery. These measures may also be more cost-efficient than further effluent reductions, when such reductions have already been implemented to a large extent, but are still insufficient (or ecosystem response may be too slow) to achieve the objective of good status within the time-frame set by the WFD. Examples of ecotechnical measures are:

• restoring the natural meandering shape of rivers with a well developed riparian zone, enabling it to cope with more pollutants, without being destroyed below good status,
• wetland reconstruction, incl. harvesting the vegetation for production of fuel etc; harvesting of macrophytes, increase buffer zones along rivers, sedimentation dams
• measures to reduce contamination from mining waste, and to reduce the negative effects of contaminants in the river (revitalization of the river) and ground water
• biomanipulation in lakes (reducing zooplanktivorous fish to enhance grazing pressure on phytoplankton and avoid toxic blue-green algae)
• aeration of bottom waters, draining of bottom waters, reducing retention time by flushing, sediment removal, etc.

Optimizing eco-technical measures requires a better understanding of ecosystem functioning. Possible feedbacks of the measures on the dose-response curves used to assess good status class boundaries also have to be addressed, since this may affect the WFD-compliant classification systems.
The application of such measures will create opportunities for a better and more cost effective water resources management and also lowering of its costs. So far such an approach seems to be still not satisfactory developed and still needs quantification in different types of systems. Research should consider:

• Comparative case studies at various types of ecosystems and different pressures at EU level giving a focus to the ecoregions of the NMS/ACC
• Assessment and enhancement of absorbing and buffering capacities of various ecosystems (e.g., based on different typology, climate and degradation gradient)
• Models and tools to understand and quantify the recipient capacity of the ecosystems, the fluxes of pollutants, processes and the ecological responses in different selected areas at scales of regional and local catchments
• Models and tools for quantification of the ecosystem characteristics and ecosystem services
• Ensure the adoption of the fundamental WFD-concept that good status should be achieved through the harmonization of emissions standards with receiving water ecological status and capacity
• Analysis of best practices from the past (e. g. systems of water collecting channels in the forests of d’ Izvoarele Nerei, Romania, or Banska Stiavnica, Slovakia, other regions);
• Understanding and evaluation of economic and socio-economic aspects of eco-technical measures (e.g. cost-benefit analysis, comparison to conventional technological measures and optimisation of technological measures with ecosystem properties)
• Develop indicators, strategies and recommendations for physical planning to integrate water related measures into spatial planning and strategic environmental impact assessment (e.g. concepts of minimum critical and variability of space along the front of water bodies)
• Development of GIS based decision support systems
• Timely involvement and transfer of knowledge to stakeholders and end-users, through the adoption of the participatory approach

Societal, economic and European relevance

• WFD: Facilitate the achievement of good ecological status till 2015 and beyond
• Habitat Directive: Improvement of degraded habitats
• Biodiversity Convention: Restore and enhance biodiversity of aquatic habitats
• Millenium Development Goals: Collaborate with developing countries to improve the quality of their water resources by 2015
• EU Sustainable Development Strategy: Development of techniques using less energy and raw materials aiming at the closure of energy and material cycles
• Flood Directive: Better Buffering and regulation of the changes on water dynamics caused by climate change
• European Landscape Convention (came into force 1.3.2004): Better understanding of ecosystems and ecological services facilitating landscape protection, management and planning
• Directive on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (2001/42/ES): Prepare comprehensive indicators to assess the effects of certain plans and programmes on the possibility to achieve good ecological status, as well as on the possibilities of environment to perform other ecological services
• Spatial planning on regional and especially on local levels: Prepare specific recommendations and guidelines for protection and enhancement of ecological services through spatial planning
• Improved quality of life for local communities through the achievement of a healthier environment and increased aesthetic values
• Possible new industries, employment and renewable energies (e.g. bioproducts such as harvested wetland vegetation for fuel production)