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Rationale

Justification for indicator selection

The WEI+ is a water scarcity indicator that provides information on the level of pressure exerted by human activities on the natural water resources of a territory. This helps to identify the areas, which are prone to water stress problems (Feargemann, 2012). The WEI+ values on the country and annual scales are provided in line with the directions of UN SDG indicator 6.4.2 (“Level of water stress”), which is used to track progress towards target 6.4, addressing water scarcity and resource efficiency (UN, 2021) (however, ecological flows are not yet included in WEI+). Furthermore, computing and assessing the WEI+ at finer spatial scale (e.g. river basin districts) and finer temporal scale (e.g. seasonal), compared to the country-scale annual averages, helps to improve the monitoring and assessment of water scarcity issues, occurring regionally/locally and seasonally. Finally, computation and assessment of the WEI+ at the European level, would hide the large regional and local differences that exist across the continent. Therefore, it would be misleading. Instead, the computation and assessment of the proportional area and population being affected by water scarcity conditions (either seasonally or throughout an entire year) better capture the significance of water scarcity conditions on the continental scale.

Previous comments

  • scheidand (Andreas Scheidleder) 26 Aug 2022 15:36:55

    Austrian comment (Helga Lindinger)

    after 2nd sentence: ....efficiency (UN, 2021) (however, ecological flows are not yet included in WEI+).  

    Including the e-flows would raise the awareness for water scarcity, The low WEI+ conveys a too comforting situation although the challenges exist and rise.

     

    last sentence: ....proportional area and population

    affected population: people who live in this region or people who rely on water from water scarce regions – water transfer)  

    • marquman (Manuel Marquis) 02 Sep 2022 14:17:08

       important to precise, effectively

      Austrian comment (Helga Lindinger)

      after 2nd sentence: ....efficiency (UN, 2021) (however, ecological flows are not yet included in WEI+).  

      Including the e-flows would raise the awareness for water scarcity, The low WEI+ conveys a too comforting situation although the challenges exist and rise.

       

      • zalllnih (Nihat Zal) 15 Sep 2022 09:48:35

         Thank you for your comment, well-noted. We will make proper adjustments in the text

         important to precise, effectively

        Austrian comment (Helga Lindinger)

        after 2nd sentence: ....efficiency (UN, 2021) (however, ecological flows are not yet included in WEI+).  

        Including the e-flows would raise the awareness for water scarcity, The low WEI+ conveys a too comforting situation although the challenges exist and rise.

         

         

    • zalllnih (Nihat Zal) 15 Sep 2022 09:47:38

       Thank you for your comment, well-noted. We will make proper adjustments in the text

      Austrian comment (Helga Lindinger)

      after 2nd sentence: ....efficiency (UN, 2021) (however, ecological flows are not yet included in WEI+).  

      Including the e-flows would raise the awareness for water scarcity, The low WEI+ conveys a too comforting situation although the challenges exist and rise.

       

      last sentence: ....proportional area and population

      affected population: people who live in this region or people who rely on water from water scarce regions – water transfer)  

       

  • guzmojan (Janka Guzmová) 31 Aug 2022 13:28:25

    River basin districts when talking about Danube is too large. For Slovakia, where the Danube River is flowing just on the South-West border of the country, the source is not available for majority of the country, however in WEI+ for Slovakia it causes very small values (0,3 for years 2018 and 2019). This does not reflect the real situation in the country.

    • zalllnih (Nihat Zal) 15 Sep 2022 09:52:54

      Thank you for your feedback. As mentioned earlier, we are aware of some shortcomings in the case of Danube basin. Our computation system is not capable for such a distinction of inflow from Danube for Slovakia. Could you be so kind to provide an estimate on WEI+ for SK other than our estimations so as we have a basis for comparison or we can simply replace the EEA calculation with your calculation.

      River basin districts when talking about Danube is too large. For Slovakia, where the Danube River is flowing just on the South-West border of the country, the source is not available for majority of the country, however in WEI+ for Slovakia it causes very small values (0,3 for years 2018 and 2019). This does not reflect the real situation in the country.

       

  • ritvamar (Maria Szomolanyi Ritvayne) 01 Sep 2022 18:39:38

    Hungary:
    We agree with the Slovak colleague's comment. In the case either of Hungary or the Danube River Basin District, the EU-level WEI+ also gives a false impression, because it masks the smaller-scaled territorial (hidrological) differences. Therefore, it would be useful to calculate the WEI+ for smaller-scaled catchments (e.g. sub-units according to the WFD) in order to reveal territorial (regional) differences.

    • zalllnih (Nihat Zal) 15 Sep 2022 10:00:37

      Thank you for your feedback, for the moment we do not provide EU-wide WEI+ values. As mentioned earlier, due to missing information on topology in the WFD spatial data, Ecrins is used by EEA as spatial reference data for assessing the water scarcity conditions in Europe. All compiled data on renewable freshwater resources, water abstraction and returns are primarily disaggregated to the catchment scale and then aggregated to any spatial scale of interest e.g. subbasin, country. The average size of catchments in Ecrins is around 60 km2. The Ecrins sub-basin delineation is the closest delineation to the WFD sub-unit, although some differences exist. It is in our long-term planning to integrate WEI+ under WFD compatible scales.

      Hungary:
      We agree with the Slovak colleague's comment. In the case either of Hungary or the Danube River Basin District, the EU-level WEI+ also gives a false impression, because it masks the smaller-scaled territorial (hidrological) differences. Therefore, it would be useful to calculate the WEI+ for smaller-scaled catchments (e.g. sub-units according to the WFD) in order to reveal territorial (regional) differences.

       

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