Guidance for reporting under the WFD - CIRCABC - Europa

Guidance Document No: 21Guidance for reporting under the Water Framework Directive6 REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR GROUNDWATER BODIES6.1 IntroductionIdentification and Characterisation of Water BodiesArticle 5 and Annex II of the WFD requires MS to identify the location andboundaries of groundwater bodies. The Commission will use the informationprovided on the level of subdivision of groundwater to ensure that this is adequate todescribe the status of groundwater bodies.Article 6 of the WFD requires that a register of the water-related protected areas lyingwithin each RBD be established. This will help to ensure that the management of therelevant water bodies also ensures the objectives of these protected areas areachieved. Annex IV of the WFD specifies what types of protected areas should beincluded in the register and specifies what the summary of the register, which shouldbe part of the RBMP, should include.Classification and Monitoring of Water BodiesAnnex V of the Water Framework Directive specifies how Member States are tomonitor groundwater, present chemical and quantitative status classification resultsand identify groundwater bodies with significant and sustained upward trends 21 inpollutant concentrations. The detailed provisions and criteria for status and trendassessments are laid down in the Groundwater Directive.In addition to the WFD reporting requirements, the Groundwater Directive introducesseveral additional reporting requirements to ensure that groundwater body status andtrends have been defined according to the provisions of the Directive, and in aconsistent and comparable way across the EU.The reporting requirements include threshold values (groundwater quality standardsset by Member States). These have to be reported along with a summary of themethodology used for identifying the pollutants (or their indicators) and deriving thethreshold value(s). The criteria for establishing threshold values are included inArticle 3 and Annex I and II of the GWD (reporting obligations in GWD Article 3.5and Annex II Part C). This is linked to the pressure and impact analysis required byArticle 5 of the WFD and Article 17 of the WFD relating to strategies to prevent andcontrol pollution of groundwater. According to Article 3.1(b) of the GWD, thresholdvalues have to be established for pollutants, groups of pollutants and indicators ofpollution – the relevant parameters – which have been identified as contributing to thecharacterisation of groundwater bodies as being at risk of not meeting the WFDArticle 4 objectives, taking into account at least the list of the GWD Part B Annex II).Article 8 of the WFD requires MS to ensure the establishment of groundwaterprogrammes for the monitoring of water status (quantitative and chemical), includingthe assessment of the available groundwater resource, in order to establish a coherent21 In this reporting sheet the term 'significant and sustained upward trends' refers to the definition in Article 2.3 ofGWD.33