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SEEAW Supplementary Tables Quality Accounts

SEEAW Supplementary Tables Quality Accounts. MEDSTAT II Environment Sector / UNESCWA / UNSD Joint Sub-regional Training Session on the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEAW) Amman, March 10-13, 2008 Michael Nagy. Introduction.

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SEEAW Supplementary Tables Quality Accounts

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  1. SEEAW Supplementary TablesQuality Accounts MEDSTAT II Environment Sector / UNESCWA / UNSD Joint Sub-regional Training Session on the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEAW) Amman, March 10-13, 2008 Michael Nagy

  2. Introduction • Water quality determines the uses that can made of it • Importance of monitoring and accounting for water quality is internationally recognized: • International targets: WMO, Agenda 21 (UN 1992), EU Water Framework Directive,…) • No direct links to economic accounts, but is an important characteristic of water limits and its use • Quality accounts describe the quality of the stocks of water resources  Structure of quality accounts is similar to asset accounts • Quality accounts are still experimental: lack of sufficient country experiences

  3. What is water quality? • Water quality is generally defined for a specific concern, e.g.: • Drinking water abstraction • Bathing • Fishing • Cooling • Ecological status • …. • Aggregation of measurements can be over: • different pollutants to reach 1 index • over time to address seasonal variations • over space to reach a single quality measure for measurements at different locations

  4. The structure of quality accounts • Similar to asset accounts • Difference: Addition of the quality dimension

  5. The structure of quality accounts • Multi-years average figures could be used for the opening and closing stocks • Compilation for coastal waters possible • Possible physical units: • Volume • Number of defined river stretches: e.g. Standard River Unit (SRU): Takes into consideration the length and the water flow of a river • …..

  6. Example of France (Rivers, SRU)

  7. Example of France – Indicators and Determinands

  8. Example of Australia (Groundwater, Gigalitres) fresh: salinity < 500 mg/l marginal: 500 < salinity < 1500 mg/l brackish: 1500 < salinity < 5000 mg/l saline: salinity > 5000 mg/l

  9. Example of Austria Exceedings of legally defined thresholds for dangerous substances in rivers

  10. Example of Austria Exceedings of legally defined thresholds in rivers (percentile criterion)

  11. Choice of determinands • Addresses different national concepts and local problems (e.g. large difference in pesticides) • Some determinands are expensive to be measured • Currently only little standardisation amongst countries exists: • EU Water Framework Directive (and related daughter documents) defines lists of substances to be monitored • EU Water Framework Directive (and related daughter documents) sets threshold values for assessing quality classes

  12. Choice of assessment method • Different methods exist • very common: „rule of the worst“: e.g. SEQ-eau approach in France, Ecological Water Quality Status of the EU • Dealing with extreme values: • e.g. use of percentile (e.g. 85, 90, 95) • Example for indices in SEEAW: • River Quality Generalised Index (RQGI) • Pattern Index

  13. Quality assessment of the EU (Water Framework Directive) • Evalutes quality as the deviation from reference conditions observed for each type of water body • 5 ecological status classes: • high • good • moderate • poor • bad • Monitoring of quality elements: • biological • physico-chemical • hydro-morphological Ref: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2000:327:0001:0072:EN:PDF

  14. Monitoring of Water Quality, Austrian Example Types of monitoring: • Strategic monitoring • status and trends • preliminary surveys • Testing for compliance • water quality standards • discharge permits • Operational monitoring • process control • early warning

  15. Austrian Water Quality Monitoring System

  16. Austrian Water Quality Monitoring System • started 1991 • main goals • Show the situation • Show trends • Show problems (in relation to use) • Show results of measures

  17. Austrian Water Quality Monitoring System Legal Background • Water Act • Hydrography Act • Ordinance on Monitoring Water Quality • Ordinance on Groundwater Threshold Values • Ordinance on Water Quality Standards

  18. Austrian Water Quality Monitoring System Partnerns involved • Federal authorities • Provincial authorities • Private sector

  19. Austrian Water Quality Monitoring System Publications • Biannual reports • State of the environment report • Water Protection Report • Internethttp://www.umweltbundesamt.at: • full version of biannual report • on-line queries

  20. Austrian Water Quality Monitoring System Budget • Analyses and data transfer • 2/3 federal authorities • 1/3 provincial authorities • Selection and establishing sampling sites • 100% federal authorities • Total costs from 1990 to 1999: 25 million Euro • Costs per year: 2,2 to 2,9 Mio. Euro

  21. Austrian Water Quality Monitoring System • ~ 2000 Groundwater Monitoring Sites • captured springs and springs • investigation wells, private wells, industrial wells, water supply wells • 250 in karst and fractured groundwater • rest in groundwater in porous media • monitored four times a year

  22. Austrian Water Quality Monitoring System • 242 Running Waters Sampling Sites • sampling frequency • water chemistry - monthly • biological water quality - annually • sediments - annually • specific rivers - every two weeks • special programs - monthly

  23. Austrian Water Quality Monitoring System About 100 different parameters are monitored • Block 1: the most important inorganic parameters, e.g. nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, phosphate, boron, alkali metal and alkaline earth metal (e.g. potassium, calcium, magnesium) • Block 2: heavy metal group (e.g. arsenic, mercury, cadmium) and lightly volatile halogenetic hydrocarbons (e.g. tetrachloroethylene) • Block 3: pesticide substances (e.g. triazine, phenoxy alkane carbon acids), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, etc.

  24. Austrian Water Quality Monitoring System Cyclic Procedure • 6 years • Groundwaters: 1 year initial monitoring (enlarged set of parameters) + 5 years ‚adapted‘ monitoring (Block 1 + relevant other parameters) • Running waters: 2 years initial monitoring + 4 years ‚adapted‘ monitoring • + special monitoring campaigns

  25. Austrian Water Quality Monitoring System Selection of monitoring points • Representative locations • Internationally agreed locations (e.g. Danube convention) • Locations in catchments / water bodies with high anthropogen pressures

  26. Monitoring of Water Quality Conclusion and recommendations for a taylor made and effective monitoring • Development of national guidelines • What do we want to know? • Monitoring cycle • Technical equipment: Don‘t go for the best possible if less is sufficient! • Individual catchment areas aspects • Transparency of work and access to data is important

  27. Water management Information needs Information utilization Monitoring strategy Reporting Monitoring cycle Network design Data analysis Sample collection Data handling Laboratory analyses Conclusion – National Water Management and SEEAW Quality Accounts START SEEAW

  28. Thank you very much for your attention michael.nagy@umweltbundesamt.at

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