The Water Framework Directive (WFD) has the stated objective of delivering good status (GS) for Europe’s surface waters and groundwaters. But meeting GS is cost dependent, and in some water bodies pollution abatement costs may be high or judged as disproportionate. The definition and assessment of disproportionate costs is central for the justification of time-frame derogations and/or lowering the environmental objectives (standards) for compliance at a water body. European official guidance is discretionary about the interpretation of disproportionate costs which consequently can be interpreted and applied differently across Member States. The aim of this research is to clarify the definition of disproportionality and to convey a consistent interpretation that is fully compliant with the economic requirements of the Directive, whilst also being mindful of the principles of pollution control and welfare economics theory. On this basis, standard-setting derogations should aim to reach socially optimal decisions and be judged with reference to a combination of explicit cost and benefit curves – an application of Cost-Benefits Analysis - and financial affordability tests. Arguably, these tools should be more influential in the development of derogation decisions across member states, including Scotland. The WFD is expected to have extensive effects on Scottish agriculture, which is faced with the challenge of maintaining its competitiveness, while protecting water resources. Focusing the analysis on the socio-economic impacts of achieving water diffuse pollution targets for the sector, a series of independent tests for the assessment of disproportionate costs are proposed and evaluated. These are: i) development of abatement cost curves for agricultural Phosphorus (P) mitigation options for different farm systems; ii) a financial characterisation of farming in Scotland and impact on profits of achieving different P loads reductions at farm level are investigated in order to explore issues on "affordability" and "ability to pay" by the sector; and iii) an investigation of benefits assessment using discrete choice modelling to explore public preferences for pollution control and measure non-market benefits of WFD water quality improvements in Scotland. Results from these tests provide benchmarks for the definition of disproportionate costs and are relevant to other aspects of the economic analysis of water use in Scotland. This study helps to clarify the nature of agricultural water use and how it leads to social tradeoffs with other non agricultural users. Ultimately, this perspective adds to the debate of how and where water is best employed to maximize its value to society.

Gävle municipality strives to treat all stormwater that may prevent river and lakes from achieving a good water status under the EU water framework directive. There are three stormwater outflows at Västra vägen in Gävle that discharge untreated stormwater to Gavleån. Gävle municipality has an ambition to clean stormwater as close to the source as possible. The purpose of this study is to conduct a multi-criteria analysis to identify stormwater treatment solutions that are suitable from a technical, ecological, economic and sociocultural perspective. According to EU water framework directive Gavleån does not achieve a good chemical and ecological status because of the presence of contaminates in the river. The alternatives that will be evaluated in the multi-criteria analysis consists of a screen pool, percolation storage and four different types of filters. Except these six solutions a null alternative will be included to evaluate if the situation does not change and the stormwater is not treated as it is today. These seven alternatives will be evaluated by a panel that consists of people who work with stormwater or with matters related to the categories in the multi-criteria analysis. The panel's main priority of categories and criteria is produced by the average value of all participants’ weightings and ratings. The most important category was considered to be the sociocultural perspective and the least important was the technical perspective. The criteria that were considered important for the respective categories were operating and maintenance cost (economic perspective), reduction of pollution (technical perspective), environmental impact, land use (ecological perspective, shared position), and outdoor recreation (sociocultural perspective). The option that received the highest score in the analysis was null alternative followed by the screen pool. That is because the null alternative is considered to have the most positive impact on the socio-cultural perspective, ecological perspective and financial perspective while screen pool scored highest in the technical perspective. The results of the MCA should also be interpreted by different stakeholders' priorities and can be seen in Section 6 in which the scoring of all treatment alternatives are reported. / Gävle kommun strävar efter att rena allt dagvatten som kan försvåra möjligheten att sjöar och vattendrag uppnår en god status enligt EU:s vattendirektiv. Det finns tre dagvattenutlopp vid Västra vägen i Gävle som släpper ut orenat dagvatten till Gavleån. Detta dagvatten har Gävle kommun en ambition av att rena genom ett lokalt omhändertagande så nära källan som möjligt. Syftet med denna studie är att genomföra en multikriterieanalys för att identifiera lösningsåtgärder som kan anses som lämpliga utifrån ett tekniskt, ekologiskt, ekonomiskt och sociokulturellt perspektiv. Enligt EU:s vattendirektiv så uppnår inte Gavleån en god kemisk och ekologiskt status på grund av föroreningar som påträffats under mätningar i ån. Alternativen som kommer att utvärderas i multikriterieanalysen består av en skärmbassäng, perkolationsmagasin samt fyra olika gatubrunnsfilter. Förutom dessa alternativ så inkluderas även ett nollalternativ som avser att ingen förändring sker där dagvattnet inte renas. Dessa sju alternativ kommer att viktas av en viktningsgrupp som består av personer som på olika sätt arbetar med dagvatten eller med frågor som är relaterade till kriterierna i multikriterieanalysen. Viktningsgruppens prioriteringar av kategorier och kriterier framställs genom medelvärdet av alla deltagares betygsättning. Den viktigaste kategorin ansågs vara det sociokulturella perspektivet och den minst viktiga var det tekniska perspektivet. Kriterierna som ansågs viktiga för respektive kategori var drift och underhållskostnad (ekonomiskt perspektiv), reducering av föroreningar (tekniskt perspektiv), miljöpåverkan, markanvändning (ekologiskt perspektiv, delad plats), och rekreation och friluftsliv (sociokulturellt perspektiv). Alternativet som fick högst poäng i viktningen var nollalternativet som blev följt av skärmbassäng. Nollalternativet ansågs ha mest positiv inverkan på det sociokulturella perspektivet, ekologiska perspektivet och ekonomiska perspektivet medans skärmbassäng fick högst poäng under det tekniska perspektivet. Resultatet av multikriterieanalysen ska tolkas efter olika intressenters prioriteringar och kan göras i avsnitt 7 där poängsättningen av alla reningstekniker redovisas.

No description available.

No description available.

Using paleolimnological techniques, I have studied surface-water acidification and the effects of liming in Swedish lakes on a decadal to millennial time-scale. The overall objective was to contribute to the discussion on the fulfilment of goals within the Swedish liming program. One of the main goals of this program is to restore lakes to natural or nearly natural conditions, i.e. to a reference condition as termed in the EU Water Framework Directive. In this context, a key issue is to define reference conditions. This is a central theme of my thesis, as lake sediments offer a unique way to study past lake conditions. Past lake-water acidity of 12 reference lakes in the Swedish liming program (ISELAW) was determined using diatom analysis of sediment cores. Pollen, lead, and flyash from coal/oil combustion were used as indicators of impact from land use and atmospheric pollution. A general trend in these lakes is an initial decline in pH after lake formation due to natural soil processes, which was then followed by rather low pH values (pH 5.3-6.5). In six of the lakes pH increased as a result of expansion of agriculture (burning, forest grazing) 2000 to 1000 years ago. Local mining and long-range airborne pollution have also impacted the lakes since medieval time. These results show that the conditions of the study lakes were not natural prior to industrialization and recent (20th century) acidification. The ISELAW lakes were selected on the basis of representing typical limed lakes, and they have been limed and monitored since at least the 1980s. A comparison of chemical/biological monitoring data and the paleolimnological data gives somewhat diverging results. Most of the monitoring data suggest that the lakes were subjected to acidification during the 20th century, but the paleolimnological data can only identify clear evidence of acidification in five of the 12 lakes, hence, all lakes were probably not recently acidified. According to conclusions from monitoring the lakes have recovered following liming. The paleolimnological data give a more complex picture and three different responses have been identified: 1) a return to a diatom composition found in the lake one hundred to several thousand years ago; 2) very small shifts in the diatom composition; or 3) a diatom composition previously not found in the lake. The latter response raised the question whether liming can cause an unnatural diatom community. A comparison of diatoms in surface sediment samples of 31 limed lakes with pre-industrial reference samples from 291 lakes showed that liming does not create an unnatural diatom composition. These results illustrate that the goals for liming were not reached in all of the limed lakes, and that paleolimnology can play an important role for assessments of acidification and liming. The comparative study also highlights the importance of designing monitoring programs that can produce reliable and long data series. Given the results of the paleolimnological investigations, it is obvious that we cannot assume that the 19th century represented a natural or near natural state, and thus is a realistic reference conditions. Natural long-term lake development and previous land-use impacts need to be considered in defining reference conditions. Neither can we disregard the fact that humans always will impact nature. Although paleolimnological studies are time consuming, I believe that they could be simplified to the extent that paleolimnology could become a routine method for environmental management.

Research focus: This paper asks to what extent the European Union (EU) can influence as an external actor Turkey’s integrated water management policy. In particular this paper focuses on the case example of the water conflict arising over the usage of the transboundary Euphrates-Tigris river basin and what extent the EU can bring to bear its influence on Turkey to bring a resolution to the management of this river basin. Method: This paper consists of a comparative literature review of recent journals, academic articles, official publications and website content as well as respected news website material. The research method used consisted of an analysis assessing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the EU’s influence on Turkey’s water policy. Whilst this analysis tool is fairly straight forward to apply to assessing the EU’s influence on Turkey’s broad national water management policy, assessing how the EU can encourage Turkey to cooperate further on the International river basin of the Euphrates-Tigris is far more difficult, owing to the controversy and importance of the river to all three Countries sharing it; Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Findings: Through using a comparison of literature this paper has found that the main strength of the EU’s influence on Turkey’s integrated water management policy is through the very definite obligations Turkey must fulfil under the WFD as a candidate member for the EU. Secondly, this paper submits that the EU’s strong river management experience through large river cooperation projects, for example that of the Danube river basin, further enhances the ability of the EU’s credibility in its influence. The weakness the EU’s influence faces is the difficulty associated with Turkeys candidacy process to the EU which if hampered could quickly reduce the EU’s influence on Turkey. Opportunities for cooperation on the Euphrates–Tigris are also looked at positively in this paper especially in the light of a new Middle Eastern politics even though considerable uncertainty remains as to the full outcome. Lastly a threat that could face the EU’s influence is the results that a third way relationship between the EU and Turkey could have on limiting the EU’s influence with regard to integrated water policies. The main conclusion: This paper has concluded that the EU’s influence through the WFD is very strong on Turkey’s water policy, owing largely to Turkeys desire to obtain eventual full membership of the EU. Should the candidacy process fail, this could have a quick and damaging impact on the EU’s influence. This paper has also found that the EU has a strong potential influence in pushing Turkey towards further cooperation on the Euphrates-Tigris, however Turkey’s progress has to date been slow and remains a major challenge.   This paper recommends that Turkey uses the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to open up dialogue with lower riparian river states towards cooperation, that the EU suggest setting up a ‘commission’ as a means of achieving improved transboundary river cooperation and the need for a research network or center to bring together efforts towards cooperation on the Euphrates-Tigris river basin.

Abstract: Acidification was categorized as the main environmental problem in Scandinavia during the 1960’s. Fortunately for Sweden, as with other countries in Scandinavia, has shown a process of recovery from acidification, by emission control. Further Sweden has had an extended liming program to mitigate the effects from acidification. Regarding the acidification assessment of the EU Water Framework Directive, it requires that EU members attain a ‘good ecological status’ in their surface waters. The status is defined as a deviation from a reference value and this is achieved using a reference reflecting a preindustrial state. As the waters are recovering from acidification the liming program can be reduced. Hence, there is a need to develop tools that can be used for decisions to stop liming in single waters. This study states three approaches: the well known hydrochemical model MAGIC, a meta-MAGIC model which calibrates the reference value computed by MAGIC model and paleolimnology studies. The latter is the key because it is the one that measures the reference value by immediate samples insitu. However, all methods have advantages and disadvantages, which allowed the development of an additional tool called meta-paleo for the same purpose. This meta-paleo model is designed based on an 11 years mean of contemporary water chemistry and paleolimnology data of 71 lakes. This tool for acidification assessment enables to work with few parameters of water chemistry. However it is concluded that the model has uncertainties, which should be evaluated so it can be used as a tool for decision making.

This thesis focuses on the relationship with the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Turkey

Die Studie ermittelt den betriebswirtschaftlichen Kostendeckungsgrad bei 194 sächsischen Wasserver- und Abwasserentsorgern. Der Kostendeckungsgrad liegt bei den Wasserversorgungsleistungen bei 99 Prozent und bei den Abwasserentsorgungsleistungen bei 95 Prozent für Teil- bzw. bei 98 Prozent für Vollentsorgung. Damit hat der Freistaat Sachsen bei der Umsetzung des Grundsatzes der Kostendeckung nach Artikel 9 der EG-WRRL einen guten Stand erreicht. Nach der Studie können in Sachsen allerdings künftig Probleme bei der Beibehaltung dieser Kostendeckungsgrade auftreten. Ursachen sind die demografische Entwicklung, die Entwicklung der Rohstoffpreise, die prognostizierte Klimaentwicklung und höhere Anforderungen an den Reinheitsgrad. Um den erreichten Stand halten zu können, ist eine regelmäßige Überwachung der Kostendeckungsgrade erforderlich. Die Studie enthält Vorschläge zur Erhaltung bzw. Verbesserung der Kostendeckung.

Gefährliche Stoffe gelangen durch Abwässer aus Haushalten, Industrie und Landwirtschaft in Kläranlagen. Während der mechanisch-biologischen Abwasserbehandlung in konventionellen Kläranlagen werden nur wenige Stoffe mit toxischen, persistenten und bioakkumulierenden Eigenschaften eliminiert. Der Bericht beschreibt die Eigenschaften gefährlicher Stoffe - darunter Industriechemikalien, Pflanzenschutzmittel, Arzneistoffe, Hormone und Metalle, ermittelt Quellen des Stoffeintrages und leitet Möglichkeiten zur Verringerung der Stoffeinträge ab. In Laborkläranlagen wurde eine Methodik entwickelt, mit der bei Anlagen mit biologischer Grundreinigung und weitergehender Reinigung (Stickstoffeliminierung) die Eliminierungsrate für ausgewählte gefährliche Stoffe ermittelt werden kann. Die Eliminationsraten der untersuchten gefährlichen Stoffe sind sehr unterschiedlich. Während ausgewählte Pestizide nur in geringem Umfang eliminiert werden (Bentazon < 40 Prozent, Dichlorprop < 30 Prozent, Dibutylzinn < 50 Prozent), werden für Nonylphenolethoxylate, Phthalate und Trichlormethan hohe Eliminationsraten mit bis zu 99 Prozent ermittelt.