Strategies for sustaianble river basin managemnt

Terms such as Integrated River Basin Management IRBM and several others more sophisticated ones have been applied, but a new approach concerning the whole of Europe was adopted when the

Meike C Mathies, Pro Translation, Dublin

Design & Layout

TuTech Innovation GmbH, Hamburg

Dear reader!

River basin planning already has a long tradition in water protection

terminolo-gy Terms such as Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) and several others more sophisticated ones have been applied, but a new approach concerning the whole of Europe was adopted when the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) came into force According to the WFD all European river basins should be sub-ject to river basin management plans with ultimate goal to reach good ecological status or potential in all water bodies The Baltic Sea is one of the most fragi-

le marine areas in Europe with very sensitive brackish water oriented flora and fauna It has been suffering from heavy eutrophication and enrichment of a num-ber of harmful substances In such a region proper river basin planning is one of the most important ways to reduce these harmful effects Due to the objectives of the WFD and the schedule of its implementation, basic data collection, water body status assessment and the development of river basin management plans will re-quire significant efforts in all Member States To clarify and analyse ambiguous and conflicting interests of water course planning, the Baltic Sea Region Interreg IIIB project “Principles, tools and systems to extend spatial planning on water courses – WATERSKETCH” is being realised between 2004 – 2007 The main aims of the project include finding answers to the following questions:

1 What are the main directives and conventions related to the use of river basins

as well as to river basin management?

2 How are these demands expressed in land use planning on a regional level now and in future, especially in relation to the development of river basin plans ac-cording to the WFD?

3 What are the most common problems in the river basins of the Baltic Sea region?

4 Are there any common tools to be utilised in river basin management?

5 How can we disseminate information on sustainable river basin planning?This booklet includes the key findings of the Watersketch project More detailed re-sults can be found in the "Baltic River Basin Management Handbook" provided free

of charge and available as pdf-version for download at www.watersketch.net Thanks to its international dimension, transnational approach and cross-sectoral structure, the information provided in this booklet will provide practical assistance

to all those interested in the WFD and its implementation

The Watersketch partners hope you find this information useful and enjoy reading the information provided in this booklet.

The partners of the Watersketch project are:

Finnish Environment Institute, SYKE, Finland (lead partner)

TuTech Innovation GmbH, Germany

National Environmental Research Institute, University of Aarhus, DenmarkCounty of North Jutland, Denmark (replaced later by Danish Ministry of Environment)Lodz Technical University, Faculty of Process Environmental Engineering, PolandKaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

Coastal Research and Planning Institute, Lithuania

Hamburg Ministry for Urban Development and the Environment, GermanyNorth Ostrobothnia Regional Environment Centre, Finland

Kainuu Regional Environment Centre, Finland

University of Turku, Satakunta Environmental Research Institute, FinlandRegional Council of Satakunta, Finland

Northern Environmental Research Network, Finland

Council of Oulu Region, Finland

Joint authority of Kainuu region, Finland

Content

The Watersketch Toolbox 1

 What is the Watersketch Toolbox? 1

 What tools are in the Toolbox? 2

The Water Framework Directive 5

 A Tool for Policy Integration 5

 Links to Spatial Planning 6

Public Participation in River Basin Planning 7

Case studies 9

 Germany - Elbe: Challenges for the Hamburg stretch 9

 Denmark – Limfjorden: How to reach Good Ecological Status? 11

 Poland – Jeziorsko Reservoir: Artificial water reservoir 13

 Finland – Kokemäenjoki: Towards a Transactive Scenario Planning 15

 Finland – Oulujoki: Multiple use and environmental problems 17

 Finland – Oulujoki: Environmental effects of forestry 19

 Finland – Oulujoki: Environmental effects of peat production 21

 Finland – Oulujoki: Hydropower production 23

 Finland – Oulujoki: Protected areas 25

 Lithuania – Minija: Towards a sustainable development 27

Lessons learned 29

What is the Watersketch Toolbox?

The Watersketch Toolbox

The Watersketch Toolbox offers general information and practical tools and thods for sustainable river basin planning and management The Toolbox supports the goals set up by different EU directives, recommendations and strategies related

me-to status and use of surface waters, such as the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) and the EU Recommen-dation for Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) The Watersketch Toolbox can be found on the internet at toolbox.watersketch.net

What can you find in the Watersketch Toolbox?

The Watersketch Toolbox offers a wide set of information about basic principles

of river basin management To start with, main elements describing the quality of watercourses and pressures having effects on the quality are described Further-more, the Toolbox informs users of how to set up the new environmental objectives required by the WFD, as well as of possible measures aimed at improving different quality elements The Toolbox also highlights open and transparent river basin planning and management by offering hints and ideas regarding different methods for citizen and stakeholder participation within the planning processes The user can also find a lot of information about different pieces of EU legislation in relation

to water

In addition to basic information, several practical tools are presented in the tersketch Toolbox that apply to the analysis of a variety of problems and aiding decision-making in different phases of river basin planning and management Tools and their features are described in detail, and in addition to user instructions, a wide set of examples from real-life tool applications can be found In addition, the Toolbox offers information of case studies where tools have been applied and tested

Wa-Why has the Watersketch Toolbox been prepared?

The Watersketch Toolbox is designed for assisting environmental specialists, spatial planners, and decision-makers in river basin planning and management Due to the complex character of river basins, different kinds of tools and methods supporting decision and policy making are widely needed The Toolbox aims especially at offe-ring assistance in preparing river basin management plans required by the WFD

Tools in the Watersketch Toolbox

Altogether, there are six tools available in the Watersketch Toolbox Some of these are available for download to the user’s computer, while others can be used via the internet All tools are freely available for any user

The Watersketch Toolbox

What tools are in the Toolbox?

RiverLifeGIS

RiverLifeGIS is a ware for hydrologi-cal and water quality computations on river catchments using ge-ographical informati-

soft-on (GI) and msoft-onitored water quality data

The results can be presented in GIS-ba-sed maps RiverLife-GIS offers a possibi-lity to analyse diverse GIS data without ex-pensive commercial software The tool can

be downloaded and installed to the user’s computer

Web-HIPRE

Web-HIPRE is a tool for multicriteria

decision analysis (MCDA) using a

va-lue-tree structure It provides a

trans-parent way to structure complex

pro-blems and supports the discovery of

preferences in participatory decision

making Web-HIPRE software can be

used via the internet

The Watersketch Toolbox

Public Hearing Database

Through a Public Hearing Database, contributions from citizens can be easily ma-naged in any kind of spati-

al planning processes The database works simply in a Microsoft Access environ-ment and can be downloa-ded to the user’s computer

Priority Game

Generator

Priority Games offer

citizens the

possi-bility to attempt for

themselves the

ba-lancing of their

va-rious interests and

preferences against

each other

Priori-ty Game Generator

is a general tool for

creating new priority

games for any

de-cision-making

pro-blem, and it works

via the internet

Responsible

partner: Finnish Environment Institute

Keywords: ICT-tools, RiverLifeGIS, Web-HIPRE, Public Hearing Database,

Priority Game Generator, REGCEL, DHRAM

More info at: http://toolbox.watersketch.net

The Watersketch Toolbox

REGCEL

Using the REGCEL tool, the logical impacts of changes in water level fluctuation in lakes can be assessed The tool cal-culates more than 50 parame-ters from the water level data, which indirectly describe the impacts of water level fluctuati-

eco-on eco-on benthic invertebrates, getation, some fish species and birds nesting near the shore-line Some parameters describe the impacts on scenery and on recreational use The tool itself

ve-is not available in the Toolbox, however, several example appli-cations are presented

DHRAM

The DHRAM tool offers a possibility to assess the harmful impacts of flow changes

in river ecology The tool calculates some statistical parameters from the daily flow

data and estimates the degree of changes in flow circumstances It works in a

Microsoft Excel environment and can be downloaded to the user’s computer

Water level rise during bird nesting period (m)

1980-1999 2006

Natural

The Watersketch Toolbox

 A Tool for Policy Integration

The Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC of 23 October 2000 shing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy) came into force on 22 December 2000 It provides a framework for EU water policy aimed

establi-at establishing an integrestabli-ated approach to the protection, improvement and stainable use of water in Europe Its provisions cover all inland surface waters, groundwater, transitional and coastal waters The management approach is based

su-on River Basin Districts, designated by natisu-onal authorities, and as such it adheres

to an ecosystem based approach to environmental management

The implementation process designed for the WFD is a combination of traditional command-and control measures outlined in a number of required procedures, and modern planning elements supporting transparency, involvement and learning The key implementation element is the River Basin Management Plan, which coll-ects the results from the analyses of main pressures and impacts, protected areas, economic analyses, programme of measures and public consultation

The WFD aims to streamline EU policy on water This is expressed in the gramme of Measures, which is required to take into account the measures set out in other legislation directed at water bodies or water related issues (such as protected habitats depending on water) This legislation is illustrated below Moreover,

Pro-if objectives can not be reached through these measures, additional instruments may be designed

Directives containing measures included in the programme of measures.

The Programme of Measures is the procedure to ensure the development and tenance of water bodies with good quality Subsequently, the aims and measures need to be carried over to other EU and national legislation, notably sector poli-cies such as agriculture, energy, transport, urban development and tourism The legislation on Environmental and Strategic Impact Assessment could be a key tool for this These two directives ensure that major plans, policies and projects are assessed for their impact on environmental objectives

Bathing Water Directive Drinking Water Directive Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive

Nitrates Directive

Plant Protection Products Directive

Birds Directive Habitats

Directive

Sewage Sludge Directive

IPPC Directive

EIA Directive SEVESO II Directive

The Water Framework Directive

water related directives

 pressures related directives

procedural directives

protection of biodiversity in relation to water related measures

Responsible

Partner: National Environment Research Institute, University of Aarhus

Keywords: Water Framework Directive, Directives, Integration,

EU Legislation

EU water policy: www europa.eu.int/comm/environment/water

More info at: www.watersketch.net



 Links to Spatial Planning

The Water Framework Directive requires the production of River Basin Management

Plans - i.e plans based on territorial units Together, these plans will cover the

whole national territory, including transboundary river basins

The WFD introduces an ecosystem based approach, which follows the

recommen-dations given in the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) One of

the aims of the ESDP is the promotion of a wise management of the natural and

cultural heritage of the EU Water management is seen as a challenge for spatial

development, due to the close linkages between water quality and human activities

in the river basin and the need to balance demand and supply, but also due to the

transboundary nature of water management Land use- and spatial planning is

recommended as a contribution to the improvement of water quality

No doubt, water management plans, spatial development and land use plans would

benefit from close coordination This raises a number of issues for coordination and

institutional adaptation:

• How to deal with different boundaries of land use plans and river basin plans?

• How to ensure an institutional integration, making sure that common issues and

spatially overlapping measures are coordinated?

• How to ensure that information can be shared (such as monitoring data, maps

of protected areas, basis analyses, etc)?

• How to coordinate the timing of the planning processes, optimizing efficiency in

data collection, assessment, public consultation, etc.?

Tools to facilitate these integrative measures exist A common geographical

in-formation and data management system could be designed to function in

seam-less ways, overcoming the limitations of different management boundaries The

challenges for the coordination of plans are thereby more of an institutional than

technical character In the wake of the introduction of the WFD most countries will

probably not change their management institutions fundamentally but only

intro-duce adjustments One such adjustment could be to create platforms for dialogue

between the different levels of managing institutions - and maybe also for other

stakeholders These could be levers for coordination of timing, processes and

me-thods

The Water Framework Directive

as being at risk, in order to optimise the monitoring programme and the Programme of Measures Monitoring programmes start

Timetable and work programme for the production of the River Basin Management Plan

Make available for commenting Minimum 6 months to comment

2007 STEP 4 An overview of the most important water management issues within the

river basin district

Make available for commenting Minimum 6 months to comment

2008 STEP 5 A draft copy of River Basin Manage-ment Plan Make available for commenting Minimum 6

months to comment

2009 STEP 6 Final River Basin Management Plan published

2012 STEP 7 Implementation

2015 STEP 8 Evaluation and updating, derogations

2027 STEP 9 Final deadline for achieving objectives, following 2 6-year prolongations

Three levels of public participation are mentioned in the WFD: a) information, b) consultation and c) active involvement The Member States have to pub-

lish the necessary documents in the river basin management process in three rounds: 2006, 2007 and 2008 Each round contains a consultation process, where the public is invited to comment within a six months period Even though public involvement is generally accepted as being essential to the implementation of the WFD, it is not an easy task The planners and decision makers are confronted with several challenges, and involving citizens in decision-making processes is a lear-ning process for all partners involved However, we have tried to set some precise recommendation

WFD implementation process and phases where public must be involved (CIS Guidance, 2003)! Public participation in the WFD: Article 14 and Annex VIIA



Public Participation in River Basin Planning

Why do we need public participation?

The benefits are: Increasing public awareness of environmental problems;

impro-ving the quality of management plans using the knowledge, experience of

diffe-rent stakeholders; public acceptance and commitment to the decision taken; more

transparent and more creative decision making; social learning and experience

Explain in detail the reasons for the participatory process!

When should the public involvement start?

The public should be involved as early in the planning process as possible, in order

to get the maximum benefits from the public involvement, at least, before the

crucial decisions are made

Start the public involvement as early as possible and try to find other planning

pro-cesses, which are running in parallel with river basin planning giving possibilities

for synergy and mutual support!

How should the consultation be arranged?

There are no detailed procedures in the Directive on how participation should be

implemented Previously, public meetings were the most common way of arranging

public participation, but the Internet has totally changed this

The Internet is an outstanding tool for spreading information and involving the

public The authority must explain the scope of the public involvement and how

the process will be carried out The process must be transparent and all necessary

information must be available to the public The water body authority should aim at

public involvement using real participatory means through a dual-public approach

It should make use of GIS and Virtual Reality technologies to inform the public

about the various alternatives!

Who should be involved?

One of the most important issues is to identify those parts of the general public

which are to be involved in the consultation Often the term “stakeholder” is used

to refer to any person, group or organisation, which has an interest or “stake” in

an issue

Aiming at the dual-public approach mentioned in the above recommendations will

reduce the discussion of the public to stakeholders, which must involve all groups

of people within the river basin district paying special attention to groups which are

normally absent in public participation!

Handling feedback to the citizens

A positive participatory phase requires that the public complains and ideas are

handled seriously by the decision-makers and having visible impact on policies

Explain to the public how their feedback is handled by the authority Set up a public

hearing database for storing all comments and feedback from the public!

Evaluation of the public consultation

The authority must keep in mind that an assessment of the participatory process

during and after the consultation is essential Participation can be carried out in

many different ways depending on the current situation It is difficult to set up a

one for all set of step-by-step guidelines on how to implement public participation

in river basin planning

Carry out a running evaluation of the participatory phase in order to improve the

process at later stages!

Partner: TuTech Innovation GmbH /

Hamburg University of Technology

Keywords: Germany, Elbe, Hamburg, river mouth,

sediments, pollutants, morphology

Tool used: Web-HIPRE

More info at: www.watersketch.net

Case studies

Germany

River Elbe

 Challenges for the Hamburg stretch of

the River Elbe and its catchment

Type of waterbody: River mouth

With respect to the WFD the Elbe river basin consist of three different types of

waters: river, estuary and coastal water The report focuses on the tidal part of

the River Elbe including its major city Hamburg, where the harbour area has been

tentatively classified as a “heavily modified water body”

The River Elbe covers a distance of 1,091 km and a catchment area of 148,268 km

One third of it is located in the Czech Republic and two thirds in Germany, smaller

areas belonging to Poland and Austria For the implementation of the WFD the Elbe

river basin has been divided into 10 coordination areas

Main issue: Sediments

Sediments were chosen as the focus in this case study due to their property as

carrier of contaminants that are partly introduced to Hamburg by the River Elbe

from upstream The complex situation of the Hamburg area with respect to

intert-wined quantity and quality issues of sediments and in the scope of the WFD was

described

Main impacts: Pollutants, morphology

Requirements for flood safety and the logistical demands of Europe’s second

lar-gest harbour led to extensive modifications of the course of the river, its

(naviga-tional) depth and to bank reinforcements Hence, this stretch of the River Elbe will

not comply with the objectives of the Water Framework Directive in terms of river

morphology Emissions of nutrients and contaminants in the Elbe catchment will

impair compliance with ecological and chemical criteria

Tools used: Web-HIPRE

Focusing on the aspect of downstream contaminant transport via the sediment

towards Hamburg, the ICT-Tool Web-HIPRE was chosen to demonstrate what

eco-nomic, ecological and societal parameters could influence a decision on tackling

contaminant sources upstream

Lessons learned

Even though the quality of sediments has received little attention in the WFD,

se-diments ought to be considered as a secondary source of pollution, which needs

to be addressed and for which measures need to be suggested in River Basin

Ma-nagement Plans For Hamburg any such measures will be of little use when limited

to the boundaries of the city, as the main problems derive from upstream in terms

of quality and from the North Sea in terms of quantity A river basin approach

in-cluding - also financial - cooperation of all stakeholders beyond political borders is

required in order to solve historical contamination, as well as to address the

inter-actions between different sites in a river basin

Case studies

Partner: County of North Jutland (replaced later by

Danish Ministry of Environment)

Keywords: Denmark, Limfjorden, North Jutland, Fjord,

eutrophication, diffusive loading, agriculture,

Tools used: Public Hearing Database, Priority Game,

 How to reach Good Ecological Status?

Type of waterbody: Fjord

The Limfjorden is a fjord located in the North of Jutland It is connected to the

North Sea in the western part around Thybyrøn and to the Kattegat in the eastern

part close to Hals The overall flow pattern has largely been stable since 1875 when

the present conditions were established after some big storms in 1825 and 1862

caused a breakthrough between the fjord and the North Sea The surface area of

the Limfjorden is approx 1470 km2 – the marked navigation route through the

fjord from the West to the East is 170 km The volume of the fjord is approximately

7.1 km3 and the average depth of the fjord is 4.3 metres, with a maximum depth of

28 metres Salinity varies typically from 20 to 30 psu The catchment area covers

7608 km² in total, which is one sixth of the total area of Denmark The fresh water

run-off from the catchment area comes mainly via water courses

Main issue: Eutrophication

The aim of this case study is to find a way to achieve “Good Ecological Status” in

the Limfjorden according to the Water Framework Directive An equation between

the loading from land and the status of the fjord should be established A

Pro-gramme of Measures will be developed for the catchment area of the Limfjorden

four years ahead of schedule Emphasis is placed on the eutrophication of the fjord,

public involvement, and spatial planning

Main impacts: Diffusive loading, Agriculture

The main problem of the fjord is eutrophication due to large loadings of nitrogen

and phosphorus from the catchment area The loadings result in a state for the

fjord that is quite far from the Good ecological status that is the goal of the WFD

In general, the point sources are very well regulated and the impacts limited

Se-wage and fish farms are of significance only in some rivers The main problem in

the Limfjorden is eutrophication due to the high loading with nutrients mainly from

agriculture

Tools used: Public Hearing Database, Priority Game, Web-HIPRE

The Public Hearing Database and the Priority Game have been developed and used

in the planning process in the County of North Jutland for several years Web-HIPRE

was used during this project in a learning session with planners The objective of

the study was to obtain “a sustainable management of Limfjorden” taking into

account economic, social and environmental criteria Management options studied

were a) an overall decrease in fertiliser loadings, b) development of fishing

tech-nology c) reduced trawling and d) increased sewage treatment Results indicated

that an overall decrease in fertilizer would be the option with the largest impact,

and that it would affect all three main criteria, economic, social and environmental

dimensions RiverLifeGIS was tested in the case study but the extensive GIS

ana-lysis was carried out using ArcView

Lessons learned

Through this case study we have been able to determine the connection between

the loading from land and the status of the fjord In order to meet the objectives

in the WFD it is necessary to make a further reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus

loadings of the fjord Proposals for measures to reduce the loadings from land have

been identified

Case studies

Partner: LodzTechnical University

Keywords: Poland, Lodz, Jeziorsko Reservoir,

artificial water reservoir, multiple functions, waste water

Tool used: Web-HIPRE

More info at: www.watersketch.net

Case studies

Poland

Jeziorsko Reservoir