Report: Implementation of WFD: EMS-Dollart Estuar (2007)»

“The Water Framework Directive (WFD) establishes a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater. As part of the implementation of the Directive, it is first necessary to assess the current status of the waters on the basis of a target system and thus to demonstrate the need for action in relation to the objective of the WFD. This first step requires the development of appropriate evaluation procedures for the quality components specified by the WFD. The area of the transition waters of the river-area unit (FGE) Ems is jointly managed by the German and Dutch authorities via the Border Water Commission. Accordingly, work is also being carried out jointly on the implementation of the WFD and the reporting obligations towards the EC are carried out jointly. In the course of the work, several reports on the specific situation in the Ems-Dollart area have been produced in recent years (ADOLPH et al. 2005, Standing Border Water Commission 2005, ADOLPH & PETRI 2006). At the same time as the development of evaluation approaches, the development of monitoring strategies, which also took place in bilateral coordination between the Netherlands and Germany, was underway. In order to obtain an up-to-date overview of the multitude of other reports and approaches as a basis for future processing, this report summarises the state of play on the quality components macrophytes (brack and salt marches, seagrass, macroalgae), phytoplankton, fish and macrozoobenthos, taking into account the German-Dutch cooperation. The following aspects are summarised in this report: • Factsheet on possible approaches to the general determination of the ecological Potential in significantly modified waters (top-down, bottom-up method) • Information or current state of development of the assessment procedures for the biological quality components relevant in transition waters • Information on monitoring for the various quality components (generally and with regard to the Ems-Dollart estuary) • Brief instructions on the state of intercalibration (component-specific) • State of play on the definition or assessment of the ecological potential at the biological level Quality components focused on the Ems-Dollart estuary Furthermore, a short outlook on ongoing work is given for each quality component. The BioConsult Schuchardt & Scholle GbR office was commissioned by NLWKN Brake-Oldenburg to prepare the report in October 2007.”