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Martina Klapputh
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News

21.01.2021

The European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC/ICM) has published its Technical Report 3-5/2020:

Spatial Analysis of Marine Protected Area Networks in Europe’s Seas III

"Spatial Analysis of Marine Protected Area Networks in Europe’s Seas III"

The report presents an overview of the spatial distribution of marine protected areas (MPAs) in Europe’s seas established as of 2019 (excluding overseas territories). It represents an updated rerun and advancement of the spatial statistics and of the coherence analysis run by the European Topic Centre on inland, coastal, and marine waters (ETC/ICM) on MPA reported data in 2012 and 2016. As such it provides insight on the observed changes in European MPAs established in the three-year period 2017-2019.

Comparison of ecological status between countries and river basin management plans (RBMP) cycles

"Comparison of ecological status between countries and river basin management plans (RBMP) cycles"

This technical report provides an overview of the comparability of ecological status for single biological quality elements (BQEs), for abiotic quality elements (QEs) and for overall ecological status, as well as the consequences for the 3rd RBMP assessment. It highligths the confidence of European assessments of ecological status and trends relies on comparable data between countries and cycles of river basin management plans. The Analysis of data on ecological status for rivers and lakes reported to WISE (Water information system for Europe) shows major comparability issues due to variable use of biological and abiotic quality elements and how they are combined to overall ecological status. The best option to ensure comparability and illustrate progress is to use the status reported for single biological quality elements, while the best option to provide geographical coverage of all water bodies is to use overall ecological status.

Preliminary assessment of river floodplain condition in Europe

"Preliminary assessment of river floodplain condition in Europe"

This report provides an assessment methodology of floodplain condition in terms of extent, structure and processes at the European scale and give first results,
Similar to ecological status assessment of water bodies according to the Water Framework Directive, the floodplain condition assessment refers to ecological floodplain types and type-specific reference conditions. Available data allowed for assessing the floodplain condition for 70 % of the river sub-catchments in Europe.

The European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC/ICM) has published its Technical Report1/2020:
"Pesticides in European rivers, lakes and groundwaters - Data assessment":

"Pesticides in European rivers, lakes and groundwaters - Data assessment"

This report provides an overview of the available information on pesticide concentrations in fresh waters and groundwaters in Europe. The report summarizes data, reported to WISE-SoE by Eionet countries in terms of concentrations in rivers, lakes and groundwater between 2007 and 2017. This includes information on 180 substances that have been characterized by type of use, as well as measures, environmental quality standards and analytical limits of quantification.

ETC/ICM, leaded by UFZ/ Prof. D. Borchardt, contributed to the updated WISE-Marine website was launched begin of July. This happened together with the report on the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) Article 20 implementation as well as an report on the key messages on the current use of Europe´s seas and its combined effects on marine ecosystem condition – better known as "Marine Messages II".

EEA Report
"Floodplains: a natural system to preserve and restore"

Floodplains cover 3-5% of Europe’s area and 50-60% of Europe’s Natura 2000 sites. It is estimated that 80-90% of the floodplain area is ecologically degraded. The recent EEA report "Floodplains: a natural system to preserve and restore" shows that natural floodplains support achieving multiple EU policy objectives. More specifically to show that natural and restored floodplains provide an alternative to structural measures for providing flood protection, and at the same time support achieving higher quality ecosystem service like improved water quality, improved conditions for biodiversity conservation and improved recreational value.

Excellent water quality in over 85% of European bathing waters and top marks for German bathing waters

The European Environment Agency and the European Commission have published the Report on European bathing water quality in 2018. Over 85% of bathing water sites across Europe monitored last year met the European Union’s high quality standards for water cleanliness. German bathing waters received top marks also in the 2018 bathing season: 98% of the bathing waters monitored in Germany met the quality requirements of the EC Bathing Water Directive. Approximately 93% were even rated "excellent" - the best mark. Only six bathing waters in Germany were rated 'poor' for the 2018 season by the European Commission.

Also this year's Bathing Water Report was supported by the European Topic Centre for Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC/ICM), which is led by the UFZ.

The European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC/ICM) has published its first Technical Report in 2019: "Development of a pilot 'European seafloor integrity account' assessing fishing pressure on seabed habitats":

The aim of this study is to review the existing approaches to assess the impact of fishing-induced physical disturbance on seabed habitats.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has published the EEA Report No 25/2018 titled "Contaminants in Europe's seas - Moving towards a clean, non-toxic marine environment":

The report was developed and written by Jesper H. Andersen, Therese Harvey, Ciarán Murray, Norman Green from NIVA, a partner of the European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC/ICM), together with Johnny Reker (EEA). This assessment represents a first attempt to map contamination 'problem areas' and 'non-problem areas' at the scale of Europe's seas, while also exploring whether Europe has broken some of the trends for long‑established hazardous substances. The report is based on the long-term work of the ETC/ICM and on information reported by European Union (EU) Member States, as part of reporting under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), as well as on a suite of other sources of information.

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