List of CIS Guidance Documents and technical reports

No. 1. Economics and the Environment - The Implementation Challenge of the Water Framework Directive.
- Produced by Working Group 2.6 - WATECO.  document  policy summary

No. 2. Identification of Water Bodies.
- Produced by Working Group on Water Bodies.  document

No. 3. Analysis of Pressures and Impacts.
- Produced by Working Group 2.1 - IMPRESS.  document  policy summary

No. 4. Identification and Designation of Heavily Modified and Artificial Water Bodies.
- Produced by Working Group 2.2 - HMWB.  document  policy summary

No. 5. Transitional and Coastal Waters - Typology, Reference Conditions and Classification Systems.
- Produced by Working Group 2.4 - COAST.  document

No. 6. Towards a Guidance on Establishment of the Intercalibration Network and the Process on the Intercalibration Exercise.
- Produced by Working Group 2.5 - Intercalibration.  document  policy summary

No. 7. Monitoring under the Water Framework Directive.
- Produced by Working Group 2.7 - Monitoring.  document   policy summary
 

No. 8. Public Participation in Relation to the Water Framework Directive.
- Produced by Working Group 2.9 - Public Participation.  document

No. 9. Implementing the Geographical Information System Elements (GIS) of the Water Framework Directive.
- Produced by Working Group 3.1 - GIS.  document   policy summary

No. 10. Rivers and Lakes - Typology, Reference Conditions and Classification Systems.
- Produced by Working Group 2.3 - REFCOND.  document  policy summary

No. 11. Planning Processes.
- Produced by Working Group 2.9 - Planning Processes.  document

Technical Report 1. The EU Water Framework Directive: Statistical aspects of the identification of groundwater pollution trends and aggregation of monitoring results.  document

Explanation of CIS Guidance documents

1. Economics and the environment - the implementation challenge of the Water Framework Directive outlines the economic elements of the WFD to provide an understanding of the role of economics in water policy making. It critically reviews the references to economics and economic requirements in the WFD and integrates them into the decision making process aimed at developing river basin management plans. The document goes on to lay out the key steps that should be considered when carrying out the economic analysis and presents the analysis that the Directive requires to be completed by the end of 2004. Key issues that are related to developing the economic analysis and the need to ensure coherency and integration with the process of preparing River Basin Management Plans are identified.

2. Identification of water bodies develops a common understanding of the definition of water bodies and gives specific practical suggestions for the identification of water bodies under the WFD. General considerations applicable to both surface and groundwater are described. The identification of surface water bodies and bodies of groundwater are then described in more detail.

3. Analysis of Pressures and Impacts presents a common understanding of pressures and impacts in relation to the implementation of the WFD. This includes the role of pressure and impact analysis and its contribution to the characterisation of water bodies and the development of monitoring programmes, river basin management plans and programmes of measures. The document discusses the general approach to the analysis of pressures and impacts, in particular, the key steps that must be taken and methodologies for surface waters and groundwaters. A toolbox is provided detailing specific tools (e.g. data, classification systems and models) available to aid the analysis and sources of data and information are described. Finally, the document provides examples of good practice.

4. Identification and designation of heavily modified and artificial water bodies provides explanations of the importance and consequences of artificial water body (AWB) and heavily modifies water body (HMWB) designation in the implementation of the WFD. The document describes the overall HMWB and AWB designation process in both outline and detail and describes the function of provisional identification in the first cycle of the River Basin Management, presenting some important issues of the designation process. The requirement to establish reference conditions and environmental objectives on which status classification is based is described, and the steps leading to the establishment of appropriate values for the quality elements of maximum ecological potential (MEP) and good ecological potential (GEP) presented. Important issues regarding measures and related cost considerations throughout the process are summarised.

5. Transitional and Coastal Waters - Typology, reference conditions and classification systems develops a framework for the identification of reference conditions for transitional and coastal waters. It defines coastal and transitional waters and suggests methods for the assignment of coastal water bodies to river basin districts. The document also discusses issues related to the implementation of the WFD in respect of marine lagoons and wetlands associated with coastal and transitional waters. It provides guidance on how the typology (or initial physical characterisation) of coastal and transitional water bodies should be carried out and explains the concept of biological reference conditions and how they can be used in practice. Finally the document introduces the principles underlying classification and the requirements of classification tools and schemes for the purposes of the WFD.

6. Towards a guidance on establishment of the intercalibration network and the process on the intercalibration exercise presents and discusses a common understanding and implications of the parts of the WFD relating to intercalibration (Article 21 and Annex V). The document also presents a synthesis of the intercalibration process and identifies the key steps on the critical path and the possible bottlenecks that may be encountered. The implications of a limited intercalibration and possible short and long-term solutions are provided. Practical guidance is given on the site selection process and criteria for the selection of types and sites for the intercalibration network. The document also presents a preliminary description of the process of the intercalibration exercise to take place in 2005/2006, which requires further elaboration in 2003.

7. Monitoring under the Water Framework Directive provides clarification of key concepts and terms in the WFD including the terms "supporting" and "water body"; the concepts of risk, precision and confidence; monitoring of wetlands; surveillance, operational and investigative monitoring of surface waters; surveillance, operation and quantitative monitoring of groundwaters; surface water monitoring for protected areas; and other monitoring considerations such as intercalibration exercises and monitoring of heavily modified water bodies. Guidance is provided on the selection of quality elements for surface waters and groundwater parameters in addition to guidance on the design and implementation of monitoring programmes. Finally, an overview of current monitoring programmes in Member States is presented.

8. Public participation in relation to the Water Framework Directive sets out a common understanding of public participation in the context of the WFD and gives specific help on how to implement public participation in the different steps of the management process. The general planning steps to be undertaken for public participation are indicated and elaborated including active involvement, consultation and access to information and background documents. Indicators for reporting and evaluation are considered and finally requirements for capacity building and investment in order to build relations and understanding between different stakeholders are discussed.

9. Implementing the Geographic Information System (GIS) elements of the Water Framework Directive presents the common understanding on terms and on the role of GIS in the WFD. It also specifies the maps that must be reported to the European Commission and when, the different GIS layers that make up these maps, the level of detail and spatial accuracy expected from the data and the reference system to use for reporting the data. The document goes on to discuss the validation procedures that should be employed in the validation step and the standards that should be followed when validating data. Guidance is given on the documentation of GIS layers including the metadata fields that should be delivered with each GIS layer and the standards to be followed when preparing the metadata. The format for transferring layers to the Commission in the short-term is defined and the way forward for the development of a distributed reporting system in the long-term discussed. The Guidance document also discusses the harmonisation of data at borders and methods for co-ordinating the reporting process. Finally the introduction of a European feature coding system is outlined.

10. Rivers and Lakes - Typology, reference conditions and classification systems focuses on the implementation of Annexes II and V of the Water Framework Directive with special emphasis on inland waters. It examines methods and principles for the establishment of reference conditions and class boundaries between high, good and moderate ecological status. Specific tools for establishing reference conditions and ecological status are described, together with suggestions for their future development, and examples of good practice of the suggested approach are provided.

11. Planning Processes explains the requirements of the Water Framework Directive in respect of river basin management planning and examines the concept of water planning. It identifies good practice and identifies the main tasks that should be undertaken in the preparation of a river basin management plan and when they should be completed.

All of the guidance documents and many other relevant public documents are also accessible directly from the circa WFD library website. http://forum.europa.eu.int/Public/irc/env/wfd/library