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Figure 1 - Worst water scarcity conditions for European river basins in any quarter of 2019, as measured by using the water exploitation index plus (WEI+)
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Austrian comment:
The spatial level of river basins is fine for us; however, without displaying additionally national borders it is difficult - especially for landlocked countries as Austria - to locate the national territories and the river basins relevant for a country within the map
Thank you for the comment, we will revise the map accordingly
We do not recognize the river basin boundaries shown on the map in Figure 1. For instance, the international river basins of Portugal include territory of Portugal and Spain. What does this delimitation correspond to? In this case, how are the values reported by Portugal and Spain combined? We also do not recognize the list of sub-basins presented in the Excel file (Basin codes and names) and we would like to know the origin of this list, especially regarding the basins and sub-basins that cover Portugal.
The delineation of the sub basin entities shown in figure 1 is based on the ECRINS EEA spatial database also used by the EEA water accounts tool. You can find further information in the following links (1) <a href="https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eea-catchments-and-rivers-network" rel="nofollow">https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eea-catchments-and-rivers-network</a>, (2) <a href="https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/wise-water-accounts-spatial" rel="nofollow">https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/wise-water-accounts-spatial</a>
Delineation of Ecrins sub-basin is following catchment boundaries and is the most closest delineation in Ecrins to WFD Sub-unit. The reason that we use Ecrins spatial data as the reference instead of WFD RBD delineation is that, the WFD RBD spatial data reported under the WISE 5 doesn't present the topological information which is needed in computing hydro-climatic variables of the renewable freshwater resources.
Regarding the aggregation process of the data, the minimum spatial unit in Ecrins is the functional elementary catchment (the average size of the catchments in Ecrins is around 60 km2 ). All data on hydro-climate and water abstraction are disaggregated to this scale and then aggregated to any scale of interest by using an application which has been designed for such computation. Therefore, in some cases, there might be large differences between the European dataset and the data that national water agencies hold.
We will check once again if there is any missing information on the basin names in Ecrins and correct it.
We agree with comment of Austria – the country borders are necessary for better orientation.
Thank you for the comment, we will revise the map accordingly
Hungarian technical comments:
According to the figure's title, the analysis was made for European river basins, but the figure rather includes sub-basins, as the legend (SB) refers to this. Since it is quite difficult to navigate on such a small figure (agreeing with AT comment), it would help a lot in identification if the borders of the river basins (in our opinion, it would rather help) were marked with a thicker line and putting the cursor on a specific hydrological unit its name would also appear. In addition, it would perhaps be useful if the figure could be supplemented with a table showing what percentage of the EU territory falls into each WEI+ category.
Thank you for the comment, we will revise the map accordingly. The first key message of the indicator is adressing to the percentage of the EU territory under the water scarcity condition in 2019.
Italy:
We do not agree with this representation where different quarterly situations are shown together in a unique map. It would be better to provide 4 distinct maps, one for each quarterly. Moreover we don't recognize river basins used in the WEI+ calculation, because at national level WFD-related evaluations, including water scarsity, are performed at RBD and Country levels. These two levels are used by Italy to provide official data to WISE, Eurostat/OCSE, and so on. Hence, we don't understand how you derived at NUTS2 and River Basin levels the figures used in the WEI+ calculation.
Please note that in fig. 1 and in different part of the text you refer to WEI instead of WEI+. This may confuse readers that are not aware about the difference between WEI and WEi+
The delineation used in this map is the Sub-basin based on the EEA ECRINS spatial database an integral part of the EEA water accounts system. The basis of this spatial system is the functional elementary catchments (FEC) which allow us to - quite accurately - aggregate to other scales such as Subbasins, RBDs, NUTS2 and Country. Please also see the EEA reply to the comments from Portugal on the same concern.
Presenting all quarterly WEI+ in a single map helps in calculating the percentage of EU territory under the water scarcity condition within the respective year. Nevertheless, WEI+ can also be illustrated on quarterly resolution. We will consider your proposal to restore the map to distinct seasons in case of better approach to the reader.
For France, some WEI+ values seem too high. Particularly for Brittany, we do not find such results in our data (this is probably in relation with input data. For example, in available calculation files, we found abstraction and consumption figures 4 to 10 times higher than our own input data for this territory)
Knowing that some results appear inconsistent, and as we have not been able to verify all the input data and calculations, we have reservations about publishing this version of the map.
In addition, we found it difficult to make comparisons, because of the different geographical reference layers: ECRINS and WFD/subunits. Furthermore, the online data are only given for the sub-units and not for the WFD districts (which would have facilitated comparison at the RBD level)
Thank you for your comments. European dataset on water resources present large gaps and has limited capability to provide the same results which might be obtained from the national data that national water agencies hold. Therefore, having such substantial differences with national data is highly likely. Certainly, we will reassess the French case and provide you with the updated results to make a final comparison with your own data. We can also replace our results with your calculation in the case you would kindly share your calculation. Another option would be taking out the WEI+ values for Brittany from the dataset if you consider that would be more appropriate.
For your information ECRINS subbasin is not fully comparable with WFD RBD/SU scales, but it is the closest delineation of Ecrins to the WFD delineation. ECRINS is based on functional elementary catchments (FEC) following the natural hydrological thresholds. We use the FEC as minimum spatial unit for disaggregating all variables for the WEI+ computation and aggregate the outcomes to any scale of interest.
Please also be informed that the WFD Spatial data doesn’t have topological information which is necessary to compute the hydro-climate variables of the WEI+. Therefore, using spatially consistent data as reference e.g. Ecrins is technically compulsory if a European overview needs to be provided on the water scarcity condition.