Table of contents
- Guidance to the reader
- General comments
- 1. Introduction
- 1.1 What are European significant water management issues?
- 1.2 Policy context
- 1.3 Structure of report
- 2. Status and pressures of Europe’s waters in 2nd RBMPs
- 2.1 Improvements in monitoring and assessment
- 2.2 Surface waters: Status and pressures
- 2.3 Groundwater: Status and pressures
- 2.4 Overall progress since the first RBMPs
- 3. European significant water management issues
- 3.1 Pollution
- 3.1.1 Point source pollution (urban waste water, industry)
- 3.1.2 Diffuse source pollution
- 3.1.3 Mining
- 3.2 Hydromorphological pressures
- 3.2.1 Barriers
- 3.2.2 Loss of lateral connectivity
- 3.2.3 Hydropower
- 3.2.4 Inland navigation
- 3.3 Abstractions and water scarcity
- 3.4 Aquaculture
- 3.5 Invasive alien species
- 4. Integrated solutions for European significant water management issues
- 4.1 Introduction
- 4.2 EU strategies, policy targets and management responses
- 4.3 Coherence of sectoral strategies with water policy objectives
- 4.4 Funding of measures
- 4.5 Measures with multiple benefits
3. European significant water management issues
3. European significant water management issues
As explained in section 1.1, the European significant water management issues presented in this report summarise EU-level evidence on the main issues and challenges that put European water bodies most at risk of not achieving the WFD environmental objectives.
Ten European significant water management issues (SWMIs) are being presented, which are related to pollution issues, hydromorphological pressures, abstractions and water scarcity, problems related to aquaculture and invasive alien species. These European SWMIs arise from ongoing human activities (such as agriculture or energy production) but also partly from historic human activities (e.g. obsolete barriers on rivers, abandoned mines) and new developments (e.g. new hydropower plants).
The ten European SWMIs have been selected based on the analysis of significant pressures affecting water bodies in the 2nd RBMPs (see EEA 2018 assessment of status and pressures of European waters). Pressures were selected that affect a sufficiently large share of European water bodies. In addition, European SWMIs have been selected, which were long time important enough to develop a rather solid basis of knowledge and information to describe the scope of the issue at European level. Additional European SWMIs may be identified in the future as European data collection and research improves on activities and pressures that put water bodies at risk of reaching WFD objectives.
Table 1 lists the European significant water management issues presented in the report.
Table 1 Overview of European significant water management issues
- Pollution issues
The following sections give a brief overview of the selected European SWMIs, including:
- A description of the issue (pressure type or sector) and information on the share of WFD water bodies affected in the second RBMPs
- An outline of the key impacts of the pressure type or sector on water ecosystems
- A summary of key measures which are available to tackle the issue and of management challenges of EU-wide relevance (ongoing challenges and new challenges ahead).
The presentation of each SWMI is concise and limited to two pages, focusing on the main issues of European relevance. For more detailed information, the literature cited in each section should be consulted. The forthcoming third RBMPs and the already published summary documents of SWMIs at river basin district, national or international level shall provide further details on the issues related to local conditions and on specific measures required in the new planning cycle.