Lecture 4 - Implementation of the WFD in England and Wales

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) is a significant piece of European water legislation.
DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) and the Environment Agency (EA) provided guidance on WFD implementation.
River basin planning is a concept introduced by the WFD, integrating influences on the water environment.
It promotes a shift from site-by-site approaches (e.g., Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive) to a more integrated water management approach.
River basin planning aims to achieve ambitious environmental objectives.

River basin districts are organizational and management units based on physical scales (surface hydrology).
Management plans are created and reported to Europe for each river basin district.
Surface hydrological boundaries define river basin districts, combining smaller river catchments.
Groundwater bodies are associated with the most relevant river basin district based on recharge zones.
Land management within a river basin district is crucial for achieving water objectives.
The WFD requires cross-border collaboration in water management.
Examples include the Solway Tweed (England/Scotland), Dee, and Severn (Wales/England) river basin districts.
Collaboration is needed between governments and environmental regulators to produce single management plans for cross-border districts.
The Humber River Basin District is an example of a large district (~26,000 sq km, ~11 million people) with 15 major river catchments, raising questions about stakeholder engagement effectiveness.

River basin liaison panels are mechanisms for stakeholder engagement.
Each river basin district has a single liaison panel representing stakeholder views.
Key objectives include representing stakeholder views, delivering change, and overseeing progress toward objectives.
The EA chairs the panels, with representatives from various organizations.
Liaison panels act as an interface between local views and top-down national approaches, balancing local pressure and national government guidance.

The water environment is divided into numerous water bodies.
Water bodies can be entire lakes, reservoirs, streams, rivers, canals, or parts thereof.
Transitional waters are estuaries defined by salinity (chloride concentrations).
Coastal waters extend one nautical mile from the high water mark.
Groundwater bodies also constitute water bodies.
Each water body has relatively similar natural characteristics.
England and Wales initially had approximately 5,500 river water bodies and 350 groundwater bodies.
A river water body includes the water environment and the surrounding landscape.
Water body typologies group individual water bodies based on their natural characteristics and sensitivity to pressures.
The typology system used in England and Wales includes altitude, size (catchment area), and dominant geology.
While theoretically, 27 individual typologies are possible given the three components, only 18 significant types exist in Great Britain.

An artificial water body is created by human action where no water body existed before and not by altering an existing water body; canals are a classic example.
A heavily modified water body has undergone significant physical changes and cannot meet WFD objectives without adversely affecting human uses (e.g., water storage, flood protection, navigation).
Designating a water body as heavily modified allows for consideration of economic and social factors.
Natural water bodies are neither artificial nor heavily modified.
Example: A river with a brick wall embankment for flood protection is heavily modified because removing the wall would impact the human use of flood protection.
Example: A reservoir created by damming a river is a heavily modified water body.
The Humber River Basin District has over 50% of its river network designated as artificial or heavily modified.

Protected areas include nutrient-sensitive areas (Nitrates Directive, Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive), Natura 2000 sites (Wild Birds Directive, Habitats Directive), ecologically significant aquatic species areas, bathing waters, and drinking water provision areas.
These areas must meet the objectives of both the WFD and their original designating legislation.
The WFD integrates fragmented water management approaches under a single umbrella.

Type-specific reference conditions are created for each type of water body.
Reference conditions represent a state with very low pressure, without industrialization, urbanization, or agricultural intensification.
Reference conditions indicate a state with no or limited human impact on the water environment.
Four key aspects are considered: physicochemical conditions, hydrology, morphology, and biological parameters.
Identifying systems at reference conditions is challenging due to ubiquitous human impacts.
Options for determining reference conditions include observation (challenging), modeling (e.g., RIFPAX for macroinvertebrates), and expert judgment.

Point Sources of Pollution Assessment:
- Estimate pollutant load entering the water body from upstream and within the water body ( $Load = Concentration \times Discharge$ ).
- Transform load into concentration ( $Concentration = \frac{Load}{Discharge}$ ).
- Compare concentration to Environmental Quality Standards (EQSs).
- Assess risk based on the confidence in the concentration relative to the EQS.
Abstraction and Flow Regulation Assessment:
- Assess abstractions and discharges into the upstream catchment and within the water body.
- Model the net artificial influence on flow using a GIS model to determine a modified flow regime.
- Compare the artificial flow regime to the natural flow regime (modelled or derived from monitoring data).
- Assess the difference between artificial and natural flow regimes.
- Focus on the percentage change in Q95 (a descriptor of low flows) between artificial and natural flows.

Q95 represents a flow with a 95% exceedance probability, indicating low flow conditions.
It is a key metric in assessing the risk associated with flow modification.