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2. Supporting Information

2.1 Definition – Water abstraction from groundwater and surface water for sectors i.e. agriculture, manufacturing, mining, quarryingand construction, cooling water for electricity generation and for manufacturing industry and public water supply.

The indicator is taking into account gross volume of water abstraction including losses and leakages, and excluding water returns from the economy back to the environment.

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2.2 Unit of measure – Water abstraction is given as millions of cubic meters (million m3).

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2.3 Policy/environmental relevance

The European Union Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) sets the purpose of the Directive –inter alia- as (Article 1, b) promoting sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources.

The EU New Circular Economy Action Plan (2020) explicitly address explicitly the water stress and holds provisions for improving resource efficiency in the context of water resources management.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP aims at the production of affordable, safe and good quality food, implementing environmentally sustainable farming, which protects natural resources and landscapes, enhances biodiversity, addresses climate change risks and stimulates the growth of rural communities and economies. Inter alias, the CAP supports investments on water conservation, upgrades of irrigation infrastructure and training of farmers to improve irrigation techniques. This indicator provides information support to the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) of the CAP implementation, which is established by the European Commission. CMEF includes different sets of indicators on a range of agricultural issues, such as a set of impact indicators measuring the impact of policy interventions.

In addition, the European Green Deal (EC, 2019) has manifested the focus of the European Commission on decoupling economic growth from resource use, by moving to a clean, circular economy, where resources are used more efficiently and the pressures to the environment are decreased. The Farm to Fork strategy (EC, 2020), which focuses on making food systems more sustainable, is an integral part of the European Green Deal.

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2.4 EEA topics – European freshwater

Resource efficiency

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2.5 DPSIR Framework - Pressure and State

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2.6 Indicator typology - Descriptive indicators (type A)

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2.7 Methodology

Water abstraction is presented as million m3 of water abstracted by economic sector from surface and groundwater. Economic sectors are defined in line with the NACE classification which include the following sectors;

- Agriculture, forestry and fishing (NACE Section A)

- Mining and quarrying (NACE Section B)

- Manufacturing (NACE Section C)

- Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (NACE Section D)

- Water collection, treatment and supply (NACE Section E - Division 36)

- Construction (NACE Section F)

- Accommodation and food service activities (NACE Section I)

- Other economic activities (NACE Sections G, H and J to U).

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For the simplification purposes, the economic sectors are aggregated to four major economic sectors; cooling water for electricity generation, agriculture, industry and public water supply following the below aggregation approach;

Cooling water for electricity generation cover the following economic sectors from the NACE

Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (NACE Section D)

Manufacturing (NACE C) - Cooling

 

Agriculture;

Agriculture, forestry and fishing (NACE Section A)

Irrigation (Part of NACE Section A - Groups 01.1 to 01.3)

Aquaculture (NACE Section A - Class 03.22)

 

 Public water supply;

Water collection, treatment and supply (NACE Section E - Division 36)

Accommodation and food service activities (NACE Section I)

Other economic activities (NACE Sections G, H and J to U).

 

 Industry;

Mining and quarrying (NACE Section B)

Manufacturing (NACE Section C)

Construction (NACE Section F)

 

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2.8 Data sources & providers

Volume of water abstraction by source and sectors (values in million m3)

Data source: EEA Waterbase - Water Quantity

 

Volume of annual freshwater abstraction by source and sector (values in million m3)

Data source: Eurostat - Annual freshwater abstraction by source and sector (env_wat_abs)

 

Volume of freshwater abstraction (values in million m3)

Data source: OECD - Freshwater abstraction

 

Population on 1 January (tps00001)

Data source: Eurostat- Population on 1 January (tps00001)

 

Population connected to public water supply [env_wat_pop]

Data source: Eurostat- Population connected to public water supply (env_wat_pop)

 

Production of electricity and derived heat by type of fuel [nrg_bal_peh]

Data source: Eurostat - Production of electricity and derived heat by type of fuel (nrg_bal_peh)

 

Production in industry - annual data [sts_inpr_a]

Data source: Eurostat - Production in industry - annual data (sts_inpr_a)


Water withdrawal by source and by sector

Data source: Aquastat

 

Water abstraction by Region, Water type and Abstraction category

Data source: Statistics Denmark

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2.9 Geographic coverage – EU 27 and EIONET 38 member countries

2.10 Time coverage – 1990-2019

2.11 Frequency of dissemination – Once every two years

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2.12 References

  • Water Framework Directive: EC, 2000. Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy, Official Journal L 327 , 22/12/2000 P. 0001 – 0073.
  • A new Circular Economy Action Plan: EC, 2020. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - A new Circular Economy Action Plan For a cleaner and more competitive Europe -COM/2020/98 final.
  • The EU Green Deal: EC, 2021. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - The European Green Deal, COM/2019/640 final.
  • The EU Common agricultural policy: EC, 2018. Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing rules on support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States under the Common agricultural policy (CAP Strategic Plans) and financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, COM/2018/392 final - 2018/0216 (COD)
  • From Farm to Fork EC (2020). Communication: A Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic And Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. 20.5.2020, COM(2019) 381 final.
  • Cross-compliance regulation: EC (2009). Commission Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009 of 30 November 2009 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 as regards cross-compliance, modulation and the integrated administration and control system, under the direct support schemes for farmers provided for that Regulation, as well as for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 as regards cross-compliance under the support scheme provided for the wine sector.

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2.13 Accuracy and uncertainties

Methodology Uncertainties

Water abstraction for households and service sectors are embedded into Public water supply, and excluding self-supply (as no data available) which creates uncertainties for the actual pressure of these sectors.

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Data sets uncertainty

  • Reported volumes of abstraction do not account for unauthorised or unregistered self-abstraction, which is a common issue in some areas.
  • Several countries (e.g. France, Greece, Malta, Slovenia) do not report abstractions for other agricultural activities apart from irrigated crop production (e.g. for animal raising or aquaculture).
  • Several countries (e.g. Poland, the Netherlands) use dual irrigation/drainage systems (i.e. drainage during wet seasons and submerged irrigation in dry seasons by raising water tables in rivers or groundwater). It is not clear, if the reported volumes for agricultural abstraction account for these practices.
  • Water abstraction for public water supply expose high uncertainties particularly in the hot spot of tourism destinations due to double counting in terms of water use by tourist at the origin of tourist.
  • Data gap filling on water abstraction for agriculture, public water supplyi manufacturing and electricity cooling had to be preformed due to large gaps in the database which expose high uncertainties. Therefore, the data used in this indicator assessment may largely deviate from the national datasets. 

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Rationale uncertainty

No rational uncertainty identified

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