scholarly journals Application of Macrophytes to the Assessment and Classification of Ecological Status above and below the Barrage with Hydroelectric Buildings

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Tomczyk ◽  
Mirosław Wiatkowski ◽  
Łukasz Gruss
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Status ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Past ◽  
Trophic Index ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Reference Index ◽  
Good Ecological Status ◽  
Reference Section

The key goal of the Water Framework Directive is to achieve a good ecological status in water bodies. The ecological status is mainly determined by the biological elements, which are a very good indicator of the changes taking place in water environments. Thus, this article focuses on the analysis of different methods of assessment of the ecological status of water bodies based on macrophytes used in selected countries in the European Union (the Macrophyte Index for Rivers (MMOR)—Poland; the Mean Trophic Rank (MTR)—Ireland; the Trophic Index of Macrophytes (TIM)—Bavaria, Germany; the Bulgarian Reference Index of Macrophytes (RI-BG)—Bulgaria). Three research sections have been selected for research on the river Ślęza: The reference section, the section above the barrage and the section below the barrage. The analysis carried out revealed considerable similarity between the results obtained by all these methods—the differences were at most by one class of ecological status (and the analysis of sums of Wilcoxon’s ranks revealed that there were no differences between the results obtained using different methods, i.e., p = 0.860). With respect to surface waters, investigation of biological elements is important because it allows one to retrace the past and foresee the future based on the past and present trends in the changes occurring in the species diversity and structure of not only macrophytes, but also other groups of organisms. Further action is required that would determine the scope of influence of barrages with hydroelectric buildings on the environment (in the case of the investigated barrage this influence is negative).

scholarly journals Influence of Anthropogenic Loads on Surface Water Status: A Case Study in Lithuania

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4341
Author(s):  
Laima Česonienė ◽  
Daiva Šileikienė ◽  
Vitas Marozas ◽  
Laura Čiteikė
Keyword(s):  
Total Nitrogen ◽  
Water Status ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Ecological Status ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
Agricultural Pollution ◽  
Good Ecological Status ◽  
Water Catchment ◽  
Lake Basins

Twenty-six water bodies and 10 ponds were selected for this research. Anthropogenic loads were assessed according to pollution sources in individual water catchment basins. It was determined that 50% of the tested water bodies had Ntotal values that did not correspond to the good and very good ecological status classes, and 20% of the tested water bodies had Ptotal values that did not correspond to the good and very good ecological status classes. The lake basins and ponds received the largest amounts of pollution from agricultural sources with total nitrogen at 1554.13 t/year and phosphorus at 1.94 t/year, and from meadows and pastures with total nitrogen at 9.50 t/year and phosphorus at 0.20 t/year. The highest annual load of total nitrogen for lake basins on average per year was from agricultural pollution from arable land (98.85%), and the highest total phosphorus load was also from agricultural pollution from arable land (60%).

A machine learning model to link ecological response and anthropogenic stressors: a tool for water management in the Tagus River Basin (Spain)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlotta Valerio ◽  
Alberto Garrido ◽  
Gonzalo Martinez-Muñoz ◽  
Lucia De Stefano
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Riparian Forest ◽  
Ecological Status ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
Nutrient Concentrations ◽  
Machine Learning Model ◽  
Tagus River ◽  
Good Ecological Status

<p>Freshwater ecosystems are threatened by multiple anthropic pressures. Understanding the effect of pressures on the ecological status is essential for the design of effective policy measures but can be challenging from a methodological point of view. In this study we propose to capture these complex relations by means of a machine learning model that predicts the ecological response of surface water bodies to several anthropic stressors. The model was applied to the Spanish stretch of the Tagus River Basin. The performance of two machine learning algorithms -Random Forest (RF) and Boosted Regression Trees (BRT) - was compared. The response variables in the model were the biotic quality indices of macroinvertebrates (Iberian Biomonitoring Working Party) and diatoms (Indice de Polluosensibilité Spécifique). The stressors used as explanatory variables belong to the following categories: physicochemical water quality, land use, alteration of the hydrological regime and hydromorphological degradation. Variables describing the natural environmental variability were also included. According to the coefficient of determination, the root mean square error and the mean absolute error, the RF algorithm has the best explanatory power for both biotic indices. The categories of land cover in the upstream catchment area, the nutrient concentrations and the elevation of the water body are ranked as the main features at play in determining the quality of biological communities. Among the hydromorphological elements, the alteration of the riparian forest (expressed by the Riparian Forest Quality Index) is the most relevant feature, while the hydrological alteration does not seem to influence significantly the value of the biotic indices. Our model was used to identify potential policy measures aimed at improving the biological quality of surface water bodies in the most critical areas of the basin. Specifically, the biotic quality indices were modelled imposing the maximum concentration of nutrients that the Spanish legislation prescribes to ensure a good ecological status. According to our model, the nutrient thresholds set by the Spanish legislation are insufficient to ensure values of biological indicators consistent with the good ecological status in the entire basin. We tested several scenarios of more restrictive nutrient concentrations and values of hydromorphological quality to explore the conditions required to achieve the good ecological status. The predicted percentage of water bodies in good status increases when a high  Riparian Forest Quality Index is set, confirming the importance of combining physico-chemical and hydromorphological improvements in order to ameliorate the status of freshwater ecosystems. </p>

Cross-scale governance and the analysis of policy implementation for water management, with particular regard to climate adaptation, industrial pollution and impacts of agriculture

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 123-142
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Farmer
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Information Transmission ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Industrial Pollution ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
National Level ◽  
Ecological Status ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Good Ecological Status

This paper explores cross-scale governance between the European Union (EU) and Member State level arising from the identification of key policy priorities by stakeholders in six river basins across Europe and their relationship to EU policy development and implementation. Particular emphasis is given to interpretation of Good Ecological Status in implementing the EU Water Framework Directive, climate adaptation for water management, application of agri-environment measures to reduce agricultural impacts on water and control of discharges from industry. The paper also examines lessons from wider sources of information such as legal analysis of transposition of EU law at national level and the rulings of the European Court of Justice. The analysis identifies a number of different types of ‘information’ transmission between the different governance scales. Information includes a range of governance issues, including transmission of rules. These are exact ‘information’ transmission (water quality standards), national elaboration of information transmitted (adapting to climate change), national simplification of information transmitted (industrial pollution control), distributed information transmission (in national transposition), fuzzy transmission of information (interpretation of Good Ecological Status) and barriers to transmission (available funding). The paper concludes by considering the importance of cross-scale analysis in assessing policy effectiveness and argues for further analysis drawing on cross-scale research derived from ecosystems analysis.

Nitrate transport pathways in riparian zones of the Hagens Møllebæk catchment, northern Denmark

1969 ◽  
pp. 17-20
Author(s):  
Bertel Nilsson ◽  
Anker Lajer Højberg ◽  
Per Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Stream Water ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Ecological Status ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Riparian Zones ◽  
Nitrate Transport ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Transport Pathways ◽  
Good Ecological Status ◽  
Targeted Approach

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) of the European Union prescribes “good ecological status” of all waters. In terms of nitrate this means, among other things, to avoid eutrophication and achieve a good ecological balance in surface water systems for the benefit of the groundwater dependent flora and fauna (Hinsby et al. 2012). In Denmark, the nitrate load to estuaries has been nearly halved since the first national action plan was implemented in the mid-1980s, but further abatements are required in many areas to fulfil the WFD. New approaches to regulate nitrate use are needed with measures targeted to the areas where most effect is obtained, and this is recognised at political level. Recent legislation allows farmers to increase nitrate application, but should at the same time introduce new mitigation measures and a more targeted approach to regulation. Therefore the physical system, i.e. the geological framework and topography, of the catchment has to be understood (Winter 1999). Previous studies have shown that in hydrological catchments with high geological variability, sampling of groundwater in riparian zones, the stream water itself and water in the stream bed can help to identify near-stream areas with specific nitrate problems. Detailed studies are, however, not feasible in all catchments, and development of representative typologies to guide an optimal location of mitigation measures in the catchment is thus needed. The present study is a detailed characterisation of nitrate transport and reduction in the groundwater–stream system in the river Hagens Møllebæk catchment for this purpose.

scholarly journals Retrieval of Chlorophyll a from Sentinel-2 MSI Data for the European Union Water Framework Directive Reporting Purposes

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ave Ansper ◽  
Krista Alikas
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
Chlorophyll A ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Atmospheric Correction ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Ecological Status ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Sentinel 2

The European Parliament and The Council of the European Union have established the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) for all European Union member states to achieve, at least, “good” ecological status of all water bodies larger than 50 hectares in Europe. The MultiSpectral Instrument onboard European Space Agency satellite Sentinel-2 has suitable 10, 20, 60 m spatial resolution to monitor most of the Estonian lakes as required by the Water Framework Directive. The study aims to analyze the suitability of Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument data to monitor water quality in inland waters. This consists of testing various atmospheric correction processors to remove the influence of atmosphere and comparing and developing chlorophyll a algorithms to estimate the ecological status of water in Estonian lakes. This study shows that the Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument is suitable for estimating chlorophyll a in water bodies and tracking the spatial and temporal dynamics in the lakes. However, atmospheric corrections are sensitive to surrounding land and often fail in narrow and small lakes. Due to that, deriving satellite-based chlorophyll a is not possible in every case, but initial results show the Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument could still provide complementary information to in situ data to support Water Framework Directive monitoring requirements.

Towards good ecological status of surface waters in Europe - interpretation and harmonisation of the concept

2004 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 169-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-S. Heiskanen ◽  
W. van de Bund ◽  
A.C. Cardoso ◽  
P. Nõges
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Surface Waters ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Reference Conditions ◽  
Ecological Status ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressures ◽  
High Good

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) is a new legislative framework to manage, use, protect, and restore surface water and groundwater resources and coastal waters in the European Union (EU). The aim is to ensure sustainable water management and to reach good water quality by 2015. The assessment of the ecological status and setting of the practical management goals require several steps. The process has started with the characterisation of the river basins including identification of surface water bodies and types, and identification of significant anthropogenic pressures and impacts. The water bodies will be classified in five quality classes (high, good, moderate, poor, bad) based on the Ecological Quality Ratio, which is a ratio between reference conditions and measured status of the biological quality elements. The normative criteria for high, good and moderate ecological status described in the WFD need to be made operational because those will be used to set the practical quality targets for surface water management. National ecological assessment systems and classifications will be harmonised through the WFD intercalibration exercise in order to ensure an equal level of ambition in achieving good surface waters status all over Europe.

scholarly journals Dear Editor

2011 ◽  
pp. 406-407
Author(s):  
Juan C. Calderón
Keyword(s):  
Process Management ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Journal Editor ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biomedical Journals ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Times ◽  
Developed World ◽  
Manuscript Publication

During my years of scientific work in Colombia, I have faced administrative difficulties which deserve comments to help improve these situations. Although the whole procedure of doing science in our country is a greater challenge than in the developed world, I would like to highlight some specific points where I feel we can take some measures to help our work.i) The very slow editorial processes of the journals. This is actually a problem shared by other countries in the region; however, our journals call my attention given the very slow and cumbersome process of revising and publishing a manuscript. This is, I feel, a problem for the whole scientific community in the country, which involves a journal editor and goes through the referees and the authors of the manuscripts. Table 1 illustrates how serious the problem is; it shows the mean number of days for accepting and publishing original papers and reviews papers that appeared in three biomedical journals category A (according to Publindex, by Colciencias www.colciencias.gov.co) in Colombia during the past two years, compared to the time taken for the same procedures in three international biomedical journals, matched by topic with the Colombian ones and also ranked A according to the homologation issued by Colcien­cias. Our journals published 214 papers during the last two years, with a mean of 214 days for a paper to be accepted and 334 days for it to be published. These numbers are far above those found for international journals in which a manuscript takes only 137 days to be accepted and 229 days to be published (n=205). Moreover, the international journals published online versions of the accepted papers up to 6 months in advance of the printed publication. Our delays affect the visibility and impact of our research, and because the speed of publication is an important issue for authors when choosing a journal to submit manuscripts, our numbers deter potential inter­national authors. I would like to suggest some measures that can be taken to improve our numbers: to include as a criteria for the classification of the journals an index of the speed of manuscript publication; to improve process management with the help of specialized softwares; to publish the times taken by the referees to evaluate the works, for instance in the section devoted to listing their names as used by some journals; to conduct pedagogy on the importance of timely revision of a manuscript for a colleague; to create precise short forms to be filled out by the referees; to unify the instructions to authors for all the journals in a given field; to increase the database of reviewers for the journals with national and international scientists; to pay for the evaluation depending on the time taken by the reviewer; to include a strict deadline for the authors to send back a corrected version of a revised manuscript; to move from printed, more expensive journals, to online, cheaper journals, as a means of increasing the number of pages per issue.

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