Rivers, lakes and coastal waters are vital natural resources,
they provide drinking water, crucial habitats for many different
types of wildlife, and are an important resource for industry and
recreation. A significant proportion of them are environmentally
damaged or under threat. Protecting and improving the environment
is an important part of achieving sustainable development and is
vital for the long term health, well being and prosperity of
everyone. The new EU Water Framework Directive is a welcome and
radical improvement on earlier, piecemeal EU water legislation. It
expands the scope of water protection to all waters and sets out
clear objectives that must be achieved by specified dates.
In October 2000 the '
Directive
2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
establishing a framework for the Community action in the field of
water policy' (EU Water Framework Directive or WFD) was
adopted. The purpose of the Directive is to establish a framework
for the protection of inland surface waters (rivers and lakes),
transitional waters (estuaries), coastal waters and groundwater. It
will ensure all aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water
needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands meet 'good status' by
2015. The Directive requires Member States to establish river basin
districts and for each of these a river basin management plan. The
Directive envisages a cyclical process where river basin management
plans are prepared, implemented and reviewed every six years. There
are four distinct elements to the river basin planning cycle:
characterisation and assessment of impacts on river basin
districts; environmental monitoring; the setting of environmental
objectives; and the design and implementation of the programme of
measures needed to achieve them.
The Directive entered into force in December 2000 and Member
States are required to transpose it into national legislation by
December 2003. The Directive has a series of implementation
deadlines which stretch to December 2015 (the date by which
environmental objectives must be met). In the UK, implementation of
the Directive is being undertaken separately for England, Wales,
Scotland, and Northern Ireland. In each country consultations have
taken place on the respective legislative frameworks to transpose
the Directive into national law.
JNCC's work in relation to the EU Water Framework Directive is
discharged through various groups. These include the Inter-Agency
WFD Nature Conservation Group, the UK Technical Advisory Group's
Marine Task Team (MTT), and the Marine Benthic Invertebrate Task
Team (MBITT).
The Inter-Agency WFD Nature Conservation Group is an
inter-agency group addressing key policy issues for conservation.
The group contains representatives from the conservation agencies
(CCW, NIEA (formally EHS), SNH, Natural England (formally English
Nature)) and the environment agencies, and the secretariat is
provided by JNCC.
The UK Technical Advisory Group's Marine Task Team (MTT),
formally known as the Marine Pollution Monitoring Management Group
(MPMMG) WFD sub-group, advises on the technical aspects
of typology, reference conditions, classification and
monitoring requirements guidance for transitional and coastal
waters. This group has also contributed to the development of
European guidance for the EC's Common Implementation Strategy. The
typology work initially involved five UK pilot projects each
examining approaches to developing a typology of transitional and
coastal waters. JNCC undertook one of the pilot projects in 2001,
the results of which have been adapted for developing the typology
for the whole of Britain and Ireland.
Under the Marine Task Team (MTT) are a number of sub-groups
which feed into the development of classification tools for the
biological quality elements, one of these sub-groups, the Marine
Benthic Invertebrate Task Team (MBITT) is developing classification
tools for the benthic invertebrate fauna to be assessed. JNCC's
focus in this group has been on its relationship to monitoring and
the assessment of Special Areas of Conservation
(SAC) condition. JNCC is working with MBITT on
investigating methods for assessing both soft sediment and hard
substratum benthic macroinvertebrate communities.