Water
Sustainable development in the European Union. 2009 monitoring report of the EU sustainable development strategy
What is the state of sustainable development in the European Union? The 2009 Eurostat monitoring report reviews the progress and implementation of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy.
The 2009 monitoring report was published on the Eurostat website. As partner in a consortium with the Vienna University of Economic and Business (RIMAS), INFRAS, and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the Ecologic Institute played a substantial role in drafting the monitoring report on behalf of Eurostat. Read more ...
DeutschEcologic Institute joins Water Footprint Network (WFN)
The WFN is an international platform promoting the concept of water footprinting as an innovative approach to consider the aspect of virtual water in water policy decisions. Ecologic seeks to link up its previous activities in the water governance field with this innovative approach. Read more ...
Networks of Cooperation: Water Policy in Germany
German water policy-making, analysed in this article by Wolfgang Rüdig and R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic Institute, defies easy categorisation. Policy processes are highly complex, fragmented, and diverse. In the areas of drinking water supply and water pollution, the most important feature is the enormous importance of regional and local government in both policy formulation and implementation. Read more ...
Biodiversity of Freshwater Ecosystems: Status, Trends, Pressures, and Conservation Priorities (BioFresh)
Freshwater biodiversity patterns and the processes that maintain them at European and global scale are poorly understood for most freshwater organisms. The BioFresh FP7 project will build a public biodiversity information platform to bring together the vast amount of information on freshwater biodiversity currently scattered among a wide range of databases. This portal will allow scientists and planners to evaluate and examine how freshwater biodiversity responds to environmental pressures for more effective conservation planning. Read more ...
Corruption Risks in Water Licensing. With Case Studies from Chile and Kazakhstan
Water resource licensing is increasingly becoming a cornerstone of integrated water resources management (IWRM). Licensing and other allocation mechanisms are important because they determine who gets access to water and provide a means of managing water fairly, efficiently and sustainably. As water grows scarce in an increasing number of countries, there is a significantly greater risk of corruption in the water licensing process. These risks, and their underlying factors, are not well understood. The authors of the report explore the nature of the risk of corruption using a 2007 field study, with Chile and Kazakhstan as case studies. Read more ...
Comparison of Draft River Basin Management Plans
The goal of this project was the comparison of six draft River Basin Management Plans required under the Water Framework Directive from France, the Netherlands, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Read more ...
International Comparison of the Implementation of the WFD in EU Member States
To achieve the “good status” of Community surface- and groundwater bodies by 2015, Management Plans and a Programme of Measures have to be formulated and implemented in all EU-river basin districts (RBD) and international RBDs. Draft plans and programs were published by the majority of Member States in December 2008, and the aim of this project was to provide a basic overview and a comparison of selected European Member States for the Dutch government. Read more ...
Development of basics for the appliance of exemptions under the WFD in Austria
Under certain situations, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) allows Member States exemptions to achieving “good status” in water bodies. This project supports the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management of Austria in the identification of exemptions under the Article 4.4 – 4.7. Read more ...
Assessment of agriculture measures included in the draft River Basin Management Plans
The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) was adopted in December 2000 and marked the beginning of a new era in European water and environmental policy. To overcome the voluminous and fragmented EU legislation on water resources prior to its adoption, the WFD promotes the streamlining of water legislation and the adoption of water policy measures in a coherent manner. To achieve "good status" of surface water and groundwater by 2015, coordinated management plans and programmes of measures must be formulated and implemented in all river basin districts (RBDs) of the EU, including international RBDs. Draft plans and programmes were published by the majority of Member States in December 2008 and must be finalized by the end of 2009. Since the successful implementation of the WFD depends strongly on agricultural land use, the aim of this project is to carry out an in-depth assessment of how the draft plans and programmes address agricultural pressures. Read more ...
Catalogue of measures to address diffuse pollution from agriculture
In order to support the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and address key pressures and impacts from agriculture activities, this project developed a catalogue of measures for tackling agricultural pollution. The catalogue serves as a EU-wide information base and is designed to support Member States in developing programmes of measures in their river basin management plans. This catalogue of measures is a living document that is updated on a regularly basis, which is particularly important to make use of the experiences gained under the first cycle of the WFD in future planning cycles. Read more ...
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