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Projects on the Move
Projects on the Move
Drupal and WordPress often hog the spotlight, but other content management systems offer impressive performances. This month, we look at the latest Joomla release and check out concrete5.
Although I wouldn't call myself a web designer, over the years I've managed websites running on eZ Publish and Drupal, and I've created several sites running WordPress, which I think is the most user-friendly site to hand off for non-technical clients to maintain. Recently, I started using Joomla, which powers the advancedclustering.com website. At first, I found Joomla to be less userfriendly than WordPress, more inviting than eZ Publish, with a learning curve comparable to Drupal (although newer versions of eZ Publish are pretty Drupal-like). In short, Joomla is different from other content management systems, so it takes some getting used to; however, it is feature-rich, has an active community, and comes with excellent documentation.
"Each CMS has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, but for me Joomla's unique strength lies in the breadth of the community and the range of available extensions – over 8,000 – that give site builders unrivaled versatility with the type of websites that they can build," says Brian Teeman, co-founder of Joomla. Joomla 1.7 rolled out in July and was the first release on the new six-month release cycle [1]. In addition to security updates, the new release offers the option to specify the site name before or after the page title, a "remove installation folder" button as part of the installation process, and the ability to add a background image to the custom HTML module.
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Mirantis Joins Hands with SUSE To Offer RHEL Support; Red Hat Not Happy
Competitors get in the game with RHEL without Red Hat
Linux on Windows 10 Poses a Security Risk
Security researchers have already notified Microsoft; some fixes are available
Mirantis to Refactor OpenStack Fuel for Kubernetes
The company is collaborating with Google and Intel to use Kubernetes as an engine for Fuel
Canonical Joins Document Foundation Advisory Board
The upcoming release of LibreOffice will be available as a snap package
SUSE Joins the Microsoft Test Drive Program
Customers can take a free test drive of SLES for HPC on the Azure Cloud
SiFive Launches a Line of Open Source Chips
San Francisco-based chip company announces their first fully open source chip platform.
Fedora 24 Released
The whole distro gets rebuilt on glibc 2.3
Canonical Announces Cross-Distro Support for Snaps
Ubuntu Vendor tries to solve app packaging and distribution problem across distributions.
ownCloud Forked
Founder of ownCloud launches the Nextcloud project.
HP Enterprise Unveils a Futuristic Computer
Will The Machine change the way future programmers think about memory?


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Governor's school visit set for students' day off
Published: Friday, February 24, 2012 at 10:16 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, February 24, 2012 at 10:16 a.m.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Plans for Gov. Rick Snyder to visit a Traverse City school hit a little snag when organizers realized classes wouldn't be in session that day.
The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports (http://bit.ly/z9Wtr2) Snyder's March 2 visit to Traverse Heights Elementary School is expected to go on. He'll check out a farm-to-school food program. If they want, students may come in for breakfast and to hear Snyder speak.
The Michigan Land Use Institute and the Traverse City Area Public Schools district organized the visit.
Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel says in an email to The Associated Press that organizers decided not to cancel or reschedule. She says it's an "unfortunate situation" but the governor is looking forward to the school visit.
Snyder also speaks to a business group that day in Traverse City.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.

subset: commoncrawl


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An anonymous tip about a suspicious vehicle circling the block took public safety officers to Skyview Drive about 1 a.m. An officer said a tall man wearing a white T-shirt ran out of the vehicle as he approached, but the man was not apprehended.
When the officer returned to the car, two other men wearing black clothing bailed out of the car but could not be found. In addition to the weapons and drugs, officers said they confiscated two cell phones.


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"Many different environmental analyses carried out in 2011 once again demonstrated that environmental harm falls when economic growth slows down," EEA Executive Director Jacqueline McGlade said. "We need to break this link between environmental damage and economic growth if we are to achieve continued prosperity, without destroying the natural systems that sustain us. "
The shift to a 'green economy' which does not damage the environment looks set to dominate environmental discussions next year. In June 2012, government representatives from around the world will meet in Rio de Janeiro, 20 years after the first historic Earth Summit – and the EEA will support the negotiations with the latest environmental information. To support better information sharing, the EEA has launched a new version of the Eye on Earth global public information service.
Information sharing is becoming an increasingly important part of modern life. Eye on Earth allows anyone to make maps and other visualisations using data from many different global, national and local organisations. Once new data or information is entered into the system in one place, it has a potentially global reach, combining with new information across different networks to build an ever-more detailed and accurate picture of our world.
"The focus on green economy in Rio reflects the issue's importance as a key environmental priority, and is particularly timely, given that it can provide a path to renewed economic growth and job creation in response to the current severe economic crises facing Europe," EEA Executive Director Jacqueline McGlade said.
The 'Environmental indicator report 2012' presents established indicators that illustrate progress towards improving resource efficiency, and indicators that depict the risk of passing environmental thresholds. Jointly, they enable policymakers and the public to reflect on where Europe stands vis-à-vis some aspects of a green economy.
Several of the indicators presented in this report show encouraging trends, while others point to issues that require urgent attention.
European environmental policies have helped Europe use resources more efficiently. However, policies aimed at making ecosystems more resilient have been less successful. Both are central to Europe achieving a green economy and becoming sustainable, according to the report.
The report emphasises that improving resource efficiency remains necessary, but stresses that this in itself may not be sufficient to ensure a resilient, sustainable natural environment. In some cases, reduced ecosystem resilience may even be irreversible, for example biodiversity loss leading to species extinction, or when environmental or climate tipping points are passed.
Following these findings, the report also considers the merits of designing policy objectives and targets that more explicitly address the links between resource efficiency, ecosystem resilience and human well-being to support the transition to a green economy.
The report uses well-established environmental indicators, assessing progress towards a green economy along six environmental themes.
The report was presented to members of parliament (MPs) from more than 20 EU Member States during a visit to the EEA on Monday 14 May 2012.
Slovak MP Mikuláš Huba, Chairman of the Agriculture and Environment Committee said: "Green economy is mentioned in the government's programme in Slovakia. This is a positive first step, but we are yet to see what might develop in terms of action." He added: "I believe it is very important to carefully consider the outcomes of economic decisions, so growth and job creation (even if called 'green') do not result environmental destruction."
José Llorens Torres MP, who is President of the Spanish government's Commission on Agriculture, Food and Environment, explained the need for a green economy in his country: "Spain has to both comply with EU objectives to reduce carbon emissions, and we have to reduce the deficit in line with the demands of the EU."
UK MP Joan Walley, Chair of the UK government's Environmental Audit Committee said: "Everyone understands what is meant by business as usual but few have signed up for the step change now urgently needed if we are to withstand the pressures on the earth's natural resources. The EEA's measured and robust research is the necessary point of departure if we are to safeguard our future. Their work needs to be understood, applied and used by all government departments including the Treasury."]]>
Recent studies, including the European Environment Agency's State and Outlook Report 2010 (SOER 2010), underline that we cannot look at environmental issues in isolation. To preserve and manage our natural capital wisely, Europe needs to reshape its economy and improve resource efficiency. Environmental tax reform is one of the measures that could contribute to Europe's transition towards a greener economy.
The idea behind environmental taxation is to impose charges on ourselves, and thereby reduce the pressure we put on the environment. When the revenue collected from such taxes (on the use of energy, emissions of air pollutants, land use, etc.) is used to reduce or avoid other taxes, it is called 'Environmental Tax Reform'.
Where taxes on environmentally harmful goods and services are used to reduce the tax burden on activities we want to encourage, such as employment and investment, it is possible to secure a 'double dividend': an improved environment and a better performing economy.
To explore the economic potential of environmental taxes, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has focused on an individual member state – Ireland – that is currently struggling with budget deficits. Several environmental tax experts came to Dublin to present their experiences. The Symposium participants identified a number of opportunities where environmental performance could be significantly improved, while at the same time generating revenues. Some of the opportunities of direct relevance to Ireland as well as their potential are listed below.
Environmental taxation is already widely used in Ireland. The poster child of this approach is the plastic bag levy, which reduced the use of such bags in Ireland by over 90 % within a week of its introduction. However, Ireland has also recently introduced a CO2-tax for the part of fossil fuel use not subject to emissions trading. The below proposals would provide a significant relief – up to €5 billion – for the Irish budget.
The 'polluter pays principle' provides that those using most resources are taxed according to their environmental impact. Without such charges, high income groups will always benefit as they use more resources and environmental services of all sorts.
Lower income groups have a proportionately smaller environmental tax burden but still face a challenge to meet their financial obligations. Such groups could be offered means to reduce consumption. In the case of water consumption, for example, there are very low cost investments with immediate effects. Alternatively, they could be provided some form of income support — a 'green cheque'.
The 'polluter pays principle' also applies to businesses, requiring them to pay for the impact of their activities on the publicly owned environment. Environmental tax reform would also create the price signals and markets to catalyse the emergence of a new generation of clean technology businesses.
Water Supply and Waste Water Treatment (subsidies removed)
Charge Category
User charges for water supply
Domestic sector free of charges in Ireland. Based on recovery of operating and (later) capital costs. Special provisions for those on low incomes
User charges for effluent and water discharge
Environmentally related taxes
Pollution and resource taxes
Water abstraction levy
Applying Danish rates and system, whereby pipe leakage could be reduced from 30-40% to 10%
Levy on aggregates levy
Sand, gravel, crushed rock. Applying UK rates for reduced volume + 25% recycling.
Tax on packaging
Applying Danish rates for glass bottles and by weight for other waste streams.
Applying rates applicable in Denmark
Applying rates applicable in Sweden
15 € per CO2-eq for N2O of mineral fertilisers
Transport taxes
Re-calibration of VRT and extension to commercial
Data as to number of commercial vehicles etc. required for more accurate revenue estimates.
Air travel tax
Apply UK rate of 14 € for longer flights; lower rate for short flights at 3 € per passenger
HGV vignette scheme
Applying Germany's approach and rates.
Energy taxes
Increasing excise duty on petrol and diesel
UK levels. Revenues netted out for the expected reduction in tank tourism from N Ireland and for differences in VAT rates.
CO2 tax, non-ETS
Increase CO2-tax to level in Sweden of 22€/tCO2
CO2 tax, offshore
Apply Norwegian system for taxation of offshore emissions from flaring etc. (0.05 €/Nm3)
Electricity tax
Introduce EU minimum rate for domestic sector (1.3 €/GJ)
Energy tax
Introduce new energy tax with minimum rate of 1.3 € per GJ - similar to EU minimum for electricity
Total environmentally-related taxes
Land Value tax (resource rent)
Land Value Tax
Applying rates applicable in Denmark ( for 'Grundskyld')
Grand total
All sources
[1] The potential for environmental taxes in Ireland based on experiences gained with environmental taxes in different European countries - with a gradual implementation over a period of four years.
This global interconnectivity means that damaging one element may cause unexpected impacts elsewhere. The recent global financial crash and the aviation chaos caused by an Icelandic volcano demonstrate how sudden breakdowns in one area can affect whole systems.
This interconnectivity is often referred to as 'globalisation' and it's not a new phenomenon. In Europe, globalisation has allowed us to prosper as a continent and take a leading economic role for a long time. Along the way we have used a great deal of our own natural resources as well as those of other nations. Our 'footprint' or impact is broad and goes well beyond our borders.
Indeed, driving forces at the heart of globalisation are expected to be a major influence on Europe and our environment in the future. Many of them are beyond our control. For example, the world population could exceed nine billion by 2050, with major environmental consequences. Asia and Africa will most likely account for most of the population growth, while only around 3 % of the growth will occur in the most developed countries (Europe, Japan, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).
A range of unfolding trends are shaping the world. We call some of these trends 'global megatrends' as they cut across social, technological, economic, political and even environmental dimensions. Key developments include changing demographic patterns or accelerating rates of urbanisation, ever faster technological changes, deepening market integration, evolving economic power shifts or the changing climate.
Such trends have huge implications for global demand for resources. Cities are spreading. Consumption is increasing. The world expects continued economic growth. Production is shifting towards newly emerging economies, which will grow in economic significance. Non-state actors could become more relevant in global political processes. And accelerating technological change is anticipated. This 'race into the unknown' brings new risks – but also offers great opportunities.
The future impacts on Europe's environment of these 'global megatrends' is the subject of one section of SOER and underpins Signals 2011. These key trends have huge implications for our global environment and our stewardship of the resources contained therein. Throughout Signals 2011 there are sections entitled 'Earth 2050 global megatrend' where we look forward at a key trend and assess its impact on Europe's environment in the future.
We can't say exactly what the earth will look or feel like in 2050. Many trends are already well established. How they continue comes down to the choices we make now. In that sense, the future is in our hands. Let's choose wisely. Our grandchildren and everybody else in the family portrait 2050 will thank us for it.
'The concept of a circular economy has recently gained traction in European policy making as a positive, solutions-based perspective for achieving economic development while respecting environmental limits. The EEA is prepared to support the transition to a circular economy through analysis and assessments,' said EEA Executive Director Hans Bruyninckx.
Unlike the traditional take-make-consume-dispose approach, a circular economy seeks to respect environmental boundaries through increasing the share of renewable or recyclable resources while reducing the consumption of raw materials and energy. Emissions and loss of resources will thus be reduced. Approaches such as eco-design, sharing, re-using, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing products and materials, will play a significant role in maintaining the use of products, components and materials and retaining their value.
'We are consuming more natural resources than is ecologically stable. This is true for both Europe and the planet as a whole. Climate change is the most visible sign of instability so far, but a range of global trends suggest greater systemic risks to ecosystems in future. The nature of the current financial crisis should give us pause for thought.' said Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of EEA.
A complete shift to a resource-efficient green economy requires that all environmental resources – biodiversity, land, carbon, rivers, the seas and the air we breathe – are fully considered in production, consumption and global trade decisions.
'There are no quick fixes but regulators, businesses and citizens need to work together and find innovative ways to use resources more efficiently. The seeds for future action exist: the task ahead is to help them take root and flourish,' concludes McGlade.
SOER 2010 also highlights a greater understanding of the links between climate change, biodiversity, resource use and people's health — and how tools like spatial planning, ecological tax reform, pollution prevention, precaution and resource accounting can underpin a natural capital-based approach to their management.
SOER is the EEA's flagship report published every five years, aimed at providing information on the state of, trends in and prospects for Europe's environment, including causes, impacts and potential responses. SOER 2010 consists of four key elements: (i) thematic assessments on key environmental issues (climate change, biodiversity, land use, air pollution, marine environment, consumption, etc.) each accompanied by relevant facts and trends, (ii) an assessment of global megatrends relevant for Europe's environment, (iii) country assessments, and (iv) an integrated synthesis report.
All SOER assessments can be accessed online at www.eea.europa.eu/soer.
About the European Environment Agency (EEA)
The EEA is based in Copenhagen. The Agency aims to help achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe's environment by providing timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policymakers and the public.
EEA member countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom. The six West Balkan countries are cooperating countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Ms Gülçin Karadeniz,
Press officer
Phone: +45 3336 7172
Mobile: +45 2368 3653
Ms Iben Stanhardt
Press officer
Phone: +45 3336 7168
Hans Bruyninckx, EEA Executive Director, said: "This report shows that while we have been successful in agreeing a wide range of policies to protect the environment, implementing these policies remains a challenge. We are making some progress towards the EU aim of creating a green economy, but we need to keep the pressure on up to 2020 and beyond."
The report identifies 63 legally binding targets and 68 non-binding objectives set out in EU policy covering the period 2010–2050. Of the 63 legally-binding targets, 62 have their deadlines in 2020 or before. Most of the current targets and objectives can be seen as interim steps towards a transition to a green economy, because in most cases eradicating the problems will require longer-term efforts beyond 2020.
The 'green economy' is an economic model which aims to increase prosperity by using resources efficiently as well as maintaining the resilience of the natural systems that sustain societies. With its 'Environmental indicator report 2012', the EEA undertook its first analysis of Europe's progress in the transition towards a green economy, using indicators to assess resource efficiency and to address ecosystem resilience. The findings show a mixed performance, although they suggest that Europe has made more progress in improving resource efficiency than preserving ecosystem resilience.
The new overview is useful as a comprehensive basis for reviewing progress in the past, and for considering the prospects for meeting future environmental policy objectives and targets.
Progress towards environmental targets in Europe
Many of the environmental problems we observe today can be linked to the way we use resources in Europe and globally. And climate change often exerts additional pressure. Even in the case of a localised summer ozone episode, the affected area might be only partly responsible. Pollutants might have been released in another country, or even another continent, while producing consumer goods for export to meet the global demand. Certain climatic conditions contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone, which then affect our health and the environment. Healthy life years are lost, medical costs go up, agricultural yields suffer…
It is also clear that air pollution or pollution in rivers can hardly be tackled by one country. Chemicals released upstream pursue their journey downstream, affecting the people and the economy along their way. Floods affect European river basins stretching over several countries.
Given the cross-border nature of environment and climate, the most effective solutions are the ones built on a strong guidance at EU level with clear targets and measures, and well-established institutions and instruments that stimulate cooperation. A clear policy vision outlined by EU policy makers and implemented by Member States does not only improve Europe's environment, but often also enables the EU to inspire other countries and to have a greater impact globally on environment and climate issues.
But tackling environment and climate problems can also strengthen our economy.
Our economic recovery from the 2008 downturn is still very frail. Although some might perceive climate and environmental concerns and legislation as obstacles to recovery, they actually provide us an opportunity to address structural weaknesses inherent in our economy and boost competitiveness.
We need to acknowledge where our strengths are. And Europe's economic strength does not lie in low labour costs or access to abundant and cheap natural resources. On the contrary, Europe has a highly skilled workforce and its economy relies on importing raw materials from the rest of the world. For some sectors such as energy, our dependence on imports risks severely undermining the economy.
In this context, our economic model needs to focus on our strengths while compensating for our weaknesses. In other words, investing in eco-innovation and new technologies can facilitate our transition to a green economy, reap the benefits of first-mover advantage and create jobs that cannot easily be relocated. For instance, energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors would create engineering jobs not only for start-up and operational phases, but also for maintenance.
The EU's 7th Environment Action Programme recognises the limits we are facing as well as our ultimate objective – 'living well' within these limits.
We do not have to live in cities with high levels of air pollution or traffic jams. We can build cities that offer a good quality of life to their residents, clean air, green spaces, sustainable and easily accessible public transport systems, offices and homes built with latest energy-efficiency technologies.
This requires integrating the 'green economy thinking' into all our policies and measures from urban planning, green infrastructure, transport and energy infrastructure, agriculture, waste management, product design, to education and research. A transition to green economy is the only viable way to ensure our long-term well-being and EU policy makers are in a unique position to guide and facilitate this transition.
Our role at the European Environment Agency is to contribute to the knowledge base needed for supporting policy making in Europe. We work very closely with our partners in the European Environmental Information and Observation Network (Eionet) from 39 European countries. We bring together data and knowledge at all levels, assess the state of the environment and the trends affecting it. We look into a wide range of environmental topics, including transport, energy, natural capital, resource efficiency, waste, biodiversity, climate vulnerability, environmental taxes, urban systems and land use.
We hope that our knowledge base, including our upcoming assessment 'European State of the Environment and Outlook Report 2015' (SOER2015), will assist policy makers across Europe to make choices that improve our economy, protect and strengthen ecosystems and for a solid basis for the well-being of European citizens.
Hans BRUYNINCKX
Executive Director
Editorial published in the issue no. 2014/3 of the EEA newsletter, September 2014]]>
The first key theme of the Astana Ministerial Conference is 'Sustainable management of water and water-related ecosystems'.
Water issues are serious and worsening in many parts of Europe, making water management complex. While water is abundant in much of Europe, large areas are affected by water scarcity and droughts — particularly in Southern Europe and Central Asia with their severe lack of, and high demand for, water. Europe is also suffering from floods, with an increasing number of deaths, displacement of people and economic losses. Climate change is projected to exacerbate this, with more frequent and severe droughts or floods projected for many parts of Europe.
An estimated 120 million people in the pan-European region do not have access to safe drinking water or adequate sanitation, making them more vulnerable to serious water-related diseases. Despite progress over the past 15 years, especially those living in rural and remote areas in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia remain at risk. Water quality has improved in many parts of Europe over the past 20 years, the result of better regulation and enforcement together with investment in wastewater treatment plants.
At both the global and European scale a multitude of inland water assessments is available, with, in many ways, Europe leading the way in producing water assessments. This is partly driven by the production of EEA water assessments over 15 years as part of the 'state of the environment' (SoE) reports, supplemented by water assessment activities by OECD, UNECE and the World Health Organization and water statistics produced by Eurostat and OECD. The EU water policies, including their reporting obligations, also add relevant assessments on the status and pressures affecting EU waters. Finally, the establishment of Transboundary Water Commissions that produce assessments for the waters under their mandate have helped in developing a solid knowledge base on water assessments.
The information on water produced by European countries has markedly increased over the past 20 years, well documented by the information presented in the national freshwater assessments. For instance, the AoA review template contains 319 SoE and water reports from 48 countries covering the period 2005–2010. The increase in the production and dissemination of such reports is due to an increased understanding that environmental monitoring and information systems are crucial for developing environmental policy.
In many countries, a variety of national assessments that, inter alia, relate to water and water-related ecosystems are produced in the form of SoE reports, environmental statistics, environmental performance reviews, 'state of water' assessments, indicators, yearbooks and a range of thematic water reports.
Much attention has been paid to making the presentation of information inviting to the reader; the use of diagrams, graphs, charts and maps within the reports has much improved over the years. Moreover, the increased use of indicators has resulted in more targeted and compact information.
Nevertheless, producing factual, timely and easy-to-understand SoE assessments remains a challenge for several countries. In many cases the assessments are largely descriptive, being a compilation of different water issues with a strong focus on status and pressures. Some improvements over the years are visible. The information presented in assessments has changed from presenting the status of a few basic parameters on a limited number of locations to presenting status, sources, effects and policy measures on a much wider range of parameters, making them much more integrated. However, in most cases only limited information on policy performance, water management, implementation of measures, new challenges, etc., is provided, although this information is imperative to make the information useful for decision-makers.
The timeliness of relevant water information has also improved over the last ten years; often the data and information in the water assessments are only a few years old. However, for some countries part of the assessments are based on old data, in some cases more than ten years old. Regional and international assessments often have difficulty in collecting timely information.
Depending on the country, some freshwater environmental issues are more important than others and therefore the focus of the assessment varies between the countries. While all countries report about general water quantity and water quality issues, little reporting was found about newer issues including hazardous substances, impacts of water scarcity and drought, or water management.
Many water and water management issues that are important at the national level are related to similar issues that are important at the European level. Although the country information would be valuable for European water assessments to support and better document the analysis, the current data and information flows from country to European level are not optimal and not always based on the information and knowledge available nationally. To improve this situation, a consistent common approach and close cooperation between international organisations and countries is needed.
Main findings of the water assessments
The analysis of SoE and water assessments has revealed a multitude and variety of products, containing a wealth of information. At the same time, the analysis also revealed that much information is lacking and the policy relevance of the information remains weak. This is not only true of national assessments but also of regional ones.
In general, the regular assessments help to improve the quality of the data and information. An important flaw in many of the reports analysed is that they are generally rich in statistical data but are of limited use in the state-of-water assessment and in the policymaking process. To improve this situation, the analytic part of the assessments has to be improved, making the assessments more relevant in the policymaking process.
Assessments are currently too restricted to environmental status and trends and have to focus more on measures and management. Indicators help in simplifying the communication of various environmental issues to policymakers and the general public. Frameworks (e.g. the Driving Forces-Pressures-State-Impacts-Responses (DPSIR) framework) help in making assessments comparable between issues and countries. To improve future assessments it is recommended to work towards more integrated assessments. These provide information about the status and trends but also provide future outlooks based on policy directions.
More and more, countries are opening up their databases to public access and make water information readily available on the Web for reasons of accountability and trustworthiness. Where countries are providing information through web-based databases, the procedure of the international programmes collecting information through questionnaires becomes obsolete. The SEIS principles enable a situation in which national and regional assessments can be developed with up-to-date information. This exchange should be based on the SEIS principle that the data and information is managed as close as possible to its source.
The first key theme of the Astana Ministerial Conference is Sustainable management of water and water-related ecosystems. This chapter assesses the current state of the many assessments of water and water-related ecosystems that are currently produced. This chapter aims to identify options for a more focused pan-European reporting and assessment process to support decision-making, and in particular examines how a gradual extension of the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) across the region can contribute to this.
Section 2.1 contains an introduction and background on water assessments and a description of the methodology used. In Section 2.2 there is an overview of global and European water assessments, while Section 2.3 provides an overview of the wealth of national water assessments. In Section 2.4 there is a discussion of the type of analysis covered by water assessments, including water issues covered, data and information coverage, the information chain for policymaking and the linking of national water information to European level. Finally, in Section 2.5 there is a description of how these findings can be used to improve the pan-European reporting and assessment process.
2.1.1 Setting the scene
Water issues are serious and worsening in many parts of Europe making water management even more complex (EEA, 2010a, b, c; Dalcanale et al., 2011). At the same time water is abundant in much of Europe, large areas are also being affected by water scarcity and droughts, particularly in Southern Europe and Central Asia where there is both a severe lack of, and a high demand for, water. Climate change will simply exacerbate this situation. The increase in frequency of water scarcity will have severe consequences on most sectors, particularly irrigated agriculture, tourism, energy production and the provision of drinking water (EEA, 2009). The unusually cold winter of 2008, for instance, left hydropower-dependent Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan without electricity. In many locations, water demand often exceeds availability and over-abstraction is causing low river flows, lowered groundwater levels and the drying-up of wetlands, with detrimental impacts on freshwater ecosystems.
Europe is also suffering from flooding, with an increasing number of deaths, displacement of people and economic losses. Again climate change is projected to exacerbate this through an increase in the intensity and frequency of floods (EEA, 2008; 2011; Kundzewicz et al., 2010). Most of the observed upward trend in cost of flood damage can be attributed to socio-economic factors such as increases in population, more assets (buildings, industry, infrastructures etc.) and urbanisation in flood-prone areas, and to land use changes, such as deforestation and loss of wetlands and natural floodplain storage.
An estimated 120 million people in the pan-European region do not have access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation, making them more vulnerable to serious water-related diseases. Despite progress over the past 15 years, those living mainly in rural and remote areas in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (WHO/ UNICEF, 2010) remain vulnerable, making the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation a challenge.
Water quality has improved in many parts of Europe over the past 20 years, the result of better regulation and enforcement together with investment in wastewater treatment plants, mainly in Western Europe (EEA, 2010c). In Eastern Europe, economic transition since the early 1990's has helped as production has become cleaner, resulting in a decrease of pollution from industrial facilities.
To meet the needs of a resource efficient future, sustain human and economic development and maintain the essential functions of our water ecosystems, an integrated and knowledge-based approach to water resource management is required. Adequate information is imperative to enable the identification of water management problems and to be able to monitor and evaluate the changes brought about by management measures.
Figure 2.1 shows that the number of measurements of the status and quality of Europe's rivers, lakes and groundwater bodies as reported to the EEA over the period 1965–2008 has increased markedly. It should be noted that this figure only shows the increase in water quality information as reported to EEA — many countries have much more data available than they report to the EEA, while the EEA has generally only asked for information after 1990.
The core objective of any water-related SoE assessment is to identify and quantify the current state of, and impacts on, the water environment, how these are changing over time and whether the measures taken at different administration levels are proving to be effective. To fulfil this objective, the information collected and disseminated needs to reflect the following issues:
To build a comprehensive picture that addresses these issues on a national, regional, or international level, a wide range of information needs to be compiled and aggregated. The information for the assessment of the environmental state of European waters is collected/produced by numerous regional and national authorities. The EEA and other international organisations (8) have the mandate to produce global, European, and regional overviews of the state of water, pressures affecting the state and recommendations to manage water better.
2.1.2 Methodology
This chapter provides an overview of the available water assessments in the European region. To this end, the virtual library, the review template, and country fiches as described in Chapter 1, covering the time period 2005–2011, were used. Selections from the virtual library and the review template were made filtering on water related issues. The country fiches were used to develop an assessment of reporting by country and to assess individual reports. Box 2.1 lists the theme priorities covered by the review. These priorities wereendorsed by the first Steering Group of the AoA in order to serve as the basis for organising the available literature to be assessed by the countries in the framework of the AoA methodology. Assessments by international organisations were also analysed. Information from the recently published EEA SOER (2010) in particular was used.
Additionally, a more in-depth analysis was made of a random selection of individual reports as a full assessment of all the available reports was in practice impossible. The analysis entailed a detailed overview of the issues addressed in the selected reports, the organisations involved and the use of indicator frameworks. The overviews of water assessments were documented in a simple template that provides a first overview for each international organisation and country of the availability of water assessments. The focus was on the 'state of water' reports, environmental water-related indicator sets, statistical reports, and water chapters within 'state of the environment' reports and environmental performance reviews (EPRs).
Box 2.1
Theme priorities to be covered (9)
Water resources
Structural measures
Water quality and pollution
Ecological state
Water management
2.2.1 Global water assessments
Global water assessments generally included an extensive compilation of information, drawn from multiple sources, documenting the state of water, the resource and its uses. Reports may be a cooperation between different agencies/organisations such as the UN World Water Development Report or reports produced by one organisation.
On the global level, the United Nations is coordinating the water activities via UN‑Water (10) composed of representatives of 28 United Nations organisations. Other organisations outside of the United Nations are partners in UN-Water. A brief description of the global water activities and assessments are provided in Box 2.2.
Box 2.2
Water activities and assessments at the global level
One of UN-Water's key responsibilities is to monitor and report on the progress being made toward reaching internationally agreed water and sanitation targets, with particular focus on the targets set by the MDGs and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Global water statistics
At the global scale, there are several institutions publishing water statistics, graphs and maps (Box 2.3).
Box 2.3
Organisations involved in making water statistics available at the global level
Global water indicator initiatives
At the global scale, there are several initiatives to establish water indicator sets; examples are listed in Box 2.4.
Box 2.4
Examples of global water indicator initiatives.
Other global water assessments
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) covered freshwater in the Current State and Trends Assessment, Chapter 7 Fresh water and Chapter 20 Inland water systems, and in the Responses Assessment Chapter 7 Freshwater ecosystem services.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has produced several assessments of inland water biodiversity.
The Worldwatch Institute produces its annual State of the World reports, often with a focus on water issues and its Vital Signs indicator factsheets cover many water aspects. Worldwatch also has several reports on water management.
The Pacific Institute is one of the leading actors in producing global and United States water assessments. The main assessment from the Pacific Institute is a biennal book of global freshwater resources, World's water. Data tables from the book are available online.
During the last 10 years much focus has been on establishing a water footprint for countries and products. The Water Footprint Network (11) has recently developed a global water-footprint standard.
The World Water Council (WWC) has produced around 35 water assessments since 2006 and the Global Water Partnership (GWP) has several publications in particular focused on integrated water resource management.
A key activity of WBCSD is water; it has produced several water publications over the last years. The 2009 Water Facts and Trends provides an overview of some basic facts and societal challenges related to water, while global water resource scenarios are included in the 2006 report: Business in the World of Water: WBCSD Water Scenarios to 2025.
2030 Water Report: Charting our water futures, produced by the 2030 Water Resource Group, describes future water resource problems.
2.2.2 European water assessments
European water assessments should generally:
a) provide the basis for identification and assessment of environmental problems and the dominant threats at regional and European levels;
b) provide information necessary to enable actions/policies to be taken to improve the environmental state of the water bodies and ensure sustainable development;
c) be based on the most relevant time and space scales to meet the above two objectives.
The amount of water information and number of assessments produced at European level has increased markedly since the publication of the Dobris Assessment (EEA, 1995). Assessment of the status of water and pressure has always been an important part of the EEA state and outlook reports (SOERs).
The EEA has the mandate to produce objective, reliable and comparable information to allow the EU, countries and the general public to judge the effectiveness of policy and the needs for policy development. To this end, the agency has produced:
The data and information EEA uses for its 'state of environment' assessments of Europe's waters are generated through national and river basin monitoring networks set up for national or EU level purposes, such as the monitoring activities established in relation to the Water Framework Directive. Up to 38 European countries (13) report a sub-sample of national results and results generated in relation to EU water directives to the EEA each year. These are made widely available through the Water Information System for Europe (WISE) (14).
In several previously described global water assessments and global 'state of the environment' reports there are chapters or sections describing the state of Europe's water. The World Water Development Reports (WWDR) include, for example, a number of European cases studies. The WWDR4, to be published in March 2012, will have a European chapter. Similarly, many of the global state of the environment/ thematic assessments, for example, GEO4, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and IPCC's AR4 (Working Group II), have European chapters/sections.
Under the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention), and its Protocol on Water and Health (15) and working groups, several publications on water have been produced. In 2007 the First Assessment of Transboundary Rivers, Lakes and Groundwaters was published — the first ever in-depth report produced on transboundary waters in the UNECE region covering 140 transboundary rivers and 30 transboundary lakes in the European and Asian parts of the region, as well as 70 transboundary aquifers. The assessment aims to inform, guide and stimulate further action by Parties to the Convention to improve the status of transboundary waters. UNECE is working on a second assessment for the Astana Ministerial Conference. In addition, the first reporting exercise under the UNECE/WHO-Euro Protocol on Water and Health was conducted during autumn 2009/spring 2010 leading to the first regional implementation report of the Protocol.
European Union institutions — the EU Commission (DG Environment, Eurostat and the Joint Research Centre (JRC)) and European Parliament — have produced several water assessment reports over the last 10 years.
The EU Commission DG Environment publishes water directive implementation reports, staff working documents and studies. These include reports related to the implementation of the urban wastewater treatment, nitrate and water framework directives and reports on water scarcity and droughts.
Eurostat databases include information on water abstraction, water use and wastewater treatment, collected every two years from countries through the joint Eurostat-OECD questionnaire. Eurostat uses the information in a variety of publications such an annual environmental indicator report and the EU sustainable development indicators. Examples of relevant Eurostat water publications and indicator sets are the Environmental statistics and accounts in Europe (2010), the Energy, transport and environment indicators (2011), and the Environmental statistics in the Mediterranean countries: compendium 2005.
The World Health Organization European Office produces assessments on water and sanitation regularly and aims at developing an environment and health indicator system including relevant water indicators.
DEWA/GRID-Europe is part of UNEP's global network of environmental information centres, known as the Global Resource Information Database (GRID). During the last ten years UNEP DEWA/GRID-Europe has produced several water-related assessments.
Over the past 20 years the OECD has produced several water assessments covering the following policy areas: water and multilevel governance; water resource management; agriculture and water management; drinking-water supply and sanitation; water supply and sanitation programme in EECCA countries; private sector participation in the water and sanitation sector; and aid for water and sanitation.
Examples of recent OECD water assessments are:
Other organisations that produce European water assessments are:
International cooperation in Central Asia is described in Box 2.5.
Box 2.5
International cooperation in Central Asia
The UN system plays a crucial role in supporting national authorities and institutions in Central Asia in the field of the environment and water management. Such international organisations as ADB, SIWI, UNEP, UNDP and USAID provide support in developing assessments of, amongst others, the state of sub‑regional ecosystems with a focus on transboundary water-resource management. Additionally, a number of institutions established by Central Asian countries develop sub-regional assessments. These include:
Finally the establishment of Transboundary Water Commissions (see Box 2.6 for an overview of several European transboundary commissions) that produce assessments for the waters under their mandate helped develop a solid knowledge base on water assessments.
Box 2.6
Listing of European Transboundary Water Commissions dealing with freshwater (not exhaustive)
In many countries, a variety of national assessments that, inter alia, relate to water and water-related ecosystems are produced in the form of SoE reports, environmental statistics, environmental performance reviews, 'state of water' assessments, indicators, yearbooks and a range of thematic water reports. Beyond these, contributions are made to international assessments. The data and information needed for such assessments come from a limited set of data collections, monitoring networks, and statistical tables, etc.
Figure 2.3 shows how water assessments are produced by countries. Where traditionally water information was reported in the form of tables, with the increasing amount of information now available (see Section 2.1.1) and the possibilities of managing information through ICT, reporting is changing. Nowadays, more and more countries use diverse ways of disseminating the information. The available data and information are, on the one hand aggregated for assessments, reports and indicators, and, on the other, are published through homepages as, for example, indicator factsheets, and internet services such as databases and GIS-maps. A still modest but growing tendency is to produce reports that provide aggregated information, while the more basic, disaggregated information is accessible through websites and online databases.
2.3.1 Organisation of national water assessments
National environmental assessments are, in general, produced or commissioned by governments and government related institutions (Lovett et al., 2007). Annex 2.1 provides an overview of the national/sub-national institutions that produce SoE assessments, statistical yearbooks, and national water reports.
Annex 2.1 shows that mostly environment ministries or environment (protection) agencies, which usually fall under the responsibility of these ministries, are responsible for producing SoE reports. Exceptions include the Czech Republic and Estonia, where SoE assessments are carried out by environmental information centres.
Statistical yearbooks are usually produced by statistical offices that are often the responsibility of ministries of the interior.
Many reports are published as paper reports, but are usually also available online. Figure 2.4 gives an overview of the ways SoE and water assessments are made available.
Water reporting is done by environment ministries, the water department in these ministries, or environment (protection) agencies. In the latter case, this is mostly the same institute as the one producing the SoE assessment. In several countries regional sub-units also produce SoE reports. These include the United Kingdom (England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland), Belgium (Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels) and Poland (voivodships).
Approximately one third of national assessments are produced through cooperation with other ministries, for example, in the Russian Federation and Georgia; other national institutes, as in Norway, Portugal, Slovakia and Tajikistan; regional offices or institutes, as in Italy and Portugal; or international organisations as in Kazakhstan and Serbia. Most of the assessments are concerned with the national level, but approximately one fifth of them target the sub-national level.
A range of detailed thematic reports, such as assessments of climate impacts on water or diffuse pollution, are produced. Such water assessments are often used for water chapters in SoE reports, in environmental statistics yearbooks and for water indicators in environmental/sustainable development indicator sets. During the last years, several countries have established internet-based services — many of the environment ministries and their collaborating institutions have water topic websites that provide information to the interested public on water resources, water pollution and state of water, usually in the form of downloadable publications and increasingly in the form of access to monitoring results such as (aggregated) data, databases and web-GIS functionality.
Box 2.7
National assessments in the southern Caucasus
2.3.2 Water assessments as part of wider 'state of the environment' reports
'State of the environment' reports
'State of the environment' reports are produced by almost all countries, usually by ministries of environment or associated institutions (Section 2.3.1). These reports include a wide range of issues. While most SoE reports largely focus on reporting about the status and trends of environmental issues, some take a much broader perspective looking at environmental issues in the broader context of socio-economic issues.
Most countries produce SoE reports every 1–5 years and the majority of SoE reports assessed for this report have been published recently, between 2008 and 2010. The information included is typically not more than two years old, although in some of the reports, four year old data is used. This indicates that the countries are aware of the importance of up-to-date environmental information. Almost all reports contain texts complemented by statistics in the form of graphs and/or tables. Approximately half of the countries also use indicators to describe their environmental status.
The size of the SoE reports in the pan-European countries varies from some 100 pages for the Czech Republic, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, through 300 pages for Ireland to more than 500 pages for the Russian Federation. The volume of SoE reports is in general reduced when information is available in the form of indicators or statistics. Some of the SoE reports are complemented by websites with additional information. In such cases, the chapters merely summarise the findings from the available information and do not have to explain the information used to produce the report as that information is accessible on the web.
Approximately half of the countries published their reports in English or include an English summary.
Environmental issues are seldom discussed from an integrated perspective, for example, by relating environmental quality to socio-economic activities and their interactions. This applies for water assessments that usually consider rivers, lakes, groundwater, bathing water, etc. separately. For example, the interaction between groundwater and surface water is rarely discussed, while socio-economic activities are often only mentioned as sources of pressure. The lack of integration is connected to the limited mandates of the institutions responsible for the assessments. However, policy relevant water assessments would benefit from integration across the various topics.
The state of environment of the Republic of Belarus
The latest national SoE report The state of environment of the Republic of Belarus(Minpriroda, 2010 (16)), covering the years 2005 to 2009, was published in 2010. It was prepared for government organisations involved in environmental management and research, public organisations, the public at large and foreign partners, providing objective information about the state of the environment, natural resources and the Republic of Belarus' state of protection.
Water is covered in Part 4: Water resources, which includes sections on renewable freshwater resources, freshwater data, domestic water consumption per person, the quality of drinking water, water loss, re-use and recycling of freshwater, waste water discharge into water bodies, surface water, biochemical oxygen demand in river water, the concentration of ammonia nitrogen in the river water, nutrients in rivers and the capacity of waste-water purification facilities.
Water chapters in 'state of the environment' reports
Mostly, SoE reports have separate chapters dealing with water. These usually present some hydrological characteristics and the water-quality status. Additionally, depending on the focus of the report, various issues such as water-management objectives, legislation, drinking water, fisheries, other water uses and pollution sources are discussed. In addition to the water chapters, other chapters also cover water aspects such as:
Some examples include:
The space allocated to water and water-related topics as part of recent SoE assessments varies; Croatia and Czech Republic allocate the least, 9 per cent of the report; France, 15 per cent and Italy at 14 per cent are in the mid-range; while Kosovo with 27 per cent, Ireland with 28 per cent, Kyrgyzstan, 33 per cent and Poland, 28 per cent, devote up to a third of the available space to water — Finland even devotes 41 per cent of its SoE assessment to water and water related topics. On average, some 15 per cent of SoE assessments deal with water issues.
Environmental indicators
Indicator sets are used by many countries (17). Many of these sets include selections of parameters, that are considered indicative for specific water management issues, as used for example by Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Luxembourg, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Russian Federation, Serbia and Slovenia. Others, including the Czech Republic, use the EEA core set of indicators or use indices, Azerbaijan and Portugal use composite indicators or, like Armenia, focus on socio‑economic issues. The national water indicators are often complemented with statistical data, such as indicators related to water abstraction and use, and wastewater treatment. Some examples of environmental indicator sets include:
Topics addressed in water chapters of SoE reports
Figure 2.5 presents an overview of the topics addressed in the SoE reports of a selection of countries (18). This overview shows that:
Omissions of topics may not be a matter of missing information but may be due to the opinion that these topics are not so much part of SoE reporting but rather ought to be reported though thematic reports.
This overview of topics only provides a rough indication of what is reported, with the level of detail varying substantially between countries. On the whole, however, the fact that countries do report on such topics as the water management context and emissions to water shows that increasing attention is being paid to information related to water policy implementation.
2.3.3 Environmental statistics
The national statistical offices often collect environment-related statistical data following methods that were introduced 10–20 years ago, with only minor changes over the years. In relation to water and related ecosystems the collected statistics cover the following:
Environmental statistical yearbooks often report data in the form of tables. Examples are:
In some cases water statistics are published as small publications (briefings, statistics in focus etc.) and water statistic tables are made available through databases. In some cases, however, statistical offices produce sustainable development indicators or more assessment oriented publications.
The purpose of environmental statistical reports usually differs from the purpose of SoE reporting.
The statistical reports typically provide additional information that is often not included in SoE reports and are therefore potentially important sources of information for integrated assessments.
2.3.4 'State of water' reports
Most countries produce specific 'state of water' assessments on a regular basis, in addition to the more general SoE assessments. Here are some examples:
As shown in the above examples, the topics discussed in the various water assessments reports are diverse, depending on the water management situation in the respective countries. A range of issues could be identified that are included in these reports, but not every issue is discussed in every report. Figure 2.7 provides an overview of issues that are discussed in the 'state of water' reports as well as some sources of the information.
Most of the 'state of water' reports assessed for this report were published in recent years (2008–2010) reporting on data four years old and less. The size of the reports varies from some 20–30 pages through some 100 pages as in the case of the Czech Republic and up to 175 pages for Croatia. Water-management plans, including 'state of water' information, amount to some 280 pages (the Netherlands). However, increasingly 'state of water' reports are concise documents that contain condensed information while data are provided in separate reports — alongside the Netherlands' Water in focus, a separate volume Water in data was published — or through webbased applications. The water indicators used in the water assessments are usually subsets of the indicators used for SoE assessments.
2.3.5 Water statistics
Many countries also publish water statistics. These appear in the form of publications (Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244/1999, Kyrgyzstan, Malta, Romania, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan) or as statistical tables, made available through websites (Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey). Some of the statistical tables include downloadable elements as in the cases of Belarus, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey, or searchable databases available for the Netherlands and Romania, for example. Some countries, as Cyprus, Latvia, and Switzerland, require login procedures to access their statistical data.
Various industrial organisations and NGOs produce publications on water, such as on water supply and/or waste water treatment in Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden; on energy in the Russian Federation; on nature conservation in Cyprus, Montenegro, Turkey and Uzbekistan; on governance in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan; on water pollution in Estonia; hydrological yearbooks for Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland; and on water regulations in Liechtenstein.
The water statistics often provide hydrological data and, increasingly, chemical parameters. Sometimes, when statistics are provided on line, real-time hydrological data are shown. By collecting information on a website, a data source is developed that can be used to produce water assessments. However, the water statistics are sometimes separated from the water assessment data.
2.3.6 Specific water thematic assessments
In addition to the general 'state of water' assessments, many countries produce reports on specific water themes — the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, for example, lists about 130 publications on water on its website, the Danish Environment Ministry lists more than 200, and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency more than 1 000 that include water, and the Slovenian online library of the Environment Agency lists 227 titles when using the search word 'water'. Such reports provide more in-depth descriptions and detailed data and information related to the theme.
Many of these thematic reports, including hydrological yearbooks, annual reports on bathing water quality, biannual reports on developments in waste water treatment and drinking water quality, are part of regular reporting schemes.
Other regular publications include national reports related to water policies. Such reports include river-basin management plans, WFD Article 5 reports, reports related to the nitrate directive, the urban waste water treatment directive, the bathing water directive, the drinking water directive, and national communications to UNFCCC.
Additionally to these obligatory reports, some countries also perform studies and produce assessments on specific issues that are important for that country, or report on ad-hoc studies, such as Oil Spill in the Kerch Strait — Ukraine Post-Disaster Needs Assessment' (Ukraine) and Dioxine in bottom sediments in the Southern Part of Baikal Lake (Russian Federation) or specific assessments for the national part of individual rivers or lakes, for instance, Baseline Conditions and Pressures on for Integrated Water Resources Management in the Marmarik River Basin of Armenia (Armenia) or State of the environment of Balkhash Lake (Kazakhstan). As well as the water thematic assessments, water and water-related ecosystems topics are discussed in other thematic assessments, such as reports on climate change, biodiversity, or energy.
The above shows that the collected data and information is used for a range of assessments alongside general environmental assessments. Also specific data and information collection takes place to develop thematic assessments. Such specific information is, however, often not stored in a way that makes it accessible to a wider audience, let alone make it available for SoE or 'state of water' assessments. Such data and information run the risk of being lost after use in one or two thematic assessments.
2.3.7 Country water profiles
The EEA 'State and outlook 2010' report on the European environment (SOER 2010) included country assessments on different environmental issues including freshwater. Countries were responsible for producing these assessments of the status and pressures affecting their freshwaters. Overall, the activity of producing freshwater assessments was a success with 37 countries providing a freshwater assessment. These national freshwater assessments provide a good overview of freshwater issues relevant for the European countries.
Many international organisations provide water information by country (Annex 2.2) including country profiles and data fact-sheets providing an overview of country-specific water issues. The annex shows that all countries appear in one or more water assessments. It also shows that the information available at the international level is often rather outdated. For instance, the latest information collected by GEMS Water, which is used in the World Water Assessment Programme, is already six years old while much of the information is much older. To improve the assessments that are based on these datasets, updating of information is needed.
UNECE (19) and OECD (20) have made substantial efforts to produce environmental performance reviews to help countries upgrade their environment through improving policies, strategies and tools. Annex 2.3 provides an overview of the countries in the pan-European region involved in these reviews and the year in which the reviews were published.
Currently, international information collection is based on programme-specific questionnaires. As each programme uses its own format and asks for a different set of data, countries have started to suffer from questionnaire fatigue and are becoming less willing to provide their data to international programmes, even more so as these sometimes add little to national water management in terms of improved understanding of national water systems. As the available information for the international programmes becomes outdated, this effect increases. Innovative ways of data collection are therefore needed to improve the information that is internationally available.
2.3.8 Findings from the assessments
Some general developments can be found from the assessment of the various assessments as described in this section. These findings are described briefly here and will be further discussed in the following sections.
2.4.1 Type of analysis covered by the water assessments
A multitude of national water assessments is available
The information on water produced by European countries has markedly increased over the past 20 years, well documented by the information presented in the national freshwater assessments. For instance, the AoA portal review template contains 319 SoE and water reports from 48 countries covering the period 2005–2010. The increase in the production and dissemination as shown in Section 2.1.1 is due to an increased understanding that environmental monitoring and information systems are crucial for developing environmental policy. Over the years, many countries have developed or improved their systems to produce environmental information and, maybe even more importantly, have opened up this information to the wider public. International legislation such as the Aarhus Convention and the EU Directive on access to information has helped this process.
Much attention has been put into making the presentation of information inviting to the reader; the use of diagrams, graphs, charts and maps within the reports has much improved over the years. Moreover, the increased use of indicators has resulted in more targeted and compact information.
Nevertheless, producing factual, timely and easy-to-understand SoE assessments remains a challenge for several countries. In many cases the assessments are largely descriptive, being a compilation of different water issues with a strong focus on status and pressures. Indicators used are typically a selection from the available information. They, too, focus on status, pressures and impacts, and neither reflect the policy-relevant drivers, nor suggest responses. Only limited information on policy performance, water management, implementation of measures, new challenges, etc. is provided, although this information is imperative to make the information useful for decision-makers. As the information is consequently not presented in an integrated manner, decision-makers consider the assessments only partly useful at best.
Many European and regional water assessments are produced
At both the global and European scale a multitude of inland water assessments is available. In many ways, Europe is leading the way in producing water assessments. The AoA virtual library, for instance, contains more than 110 regional and European SoE and water reports for the period 2005–2010. The increase in European water assessment is partly driven by the 15-year tradition of EEA in producing water assessments, supplemented with water assessment activities by OECD, UNECE, and WHO (focusing on water supply and sanitation) and water statistics produced by Eurostat and OECD.
The EU water policies, including their reporting obligations in relation to the WFD and the implementation of other water policies, such as the urban wastewater treatment, nitrate, bathing water and drinking water directives, also require relevant assessments on the status and pressures affecting the EU waters.
The OECD and UNECE environmental performance reviews have, since 1992, developed and improved the assessment methodology in the region. This was also done by the WHO Regional Office for Europe that, since 1999, has produced country health-system profiles (HiTs) as part of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. These profiles provide a detailed description of health systems and of policy initiatives, in progress or under development, including water supply and sanitation.
Finally, the establishment of Transboundary Water Commissions (see Box 2.6 for an overview) that produce assessments for the waters under their mandate helped in developing a solid knowledge base on water assessments. Despite this experience, many of the European and regional assessments are not always based on up-to-date and available information.
Timeliness of information
The timeliness of water information has improved over the last ten years; often the data and information in the water assessments are only a few years old. However, for some countries many water indicators are based on old data, in some cases more than 10 years old. Regional and international assessments have even more difficulty in collecting and using timely information where countries take time to provide the necessary information.
Some countries have regular updates of SoE water chapters and environmental/water statistics, often annually and often as part of the national legislative requirements. For instance, in Resolution No. 53 of 1993, the Government of the Russian Federation has stated that the SoE report 'should act as ground for a more precise definition of priority areas of environmental protection activities and programmes directed to improvement of the environmental situation in the Russian Federation'. Reporting cycles range between one and four years, using relatively recent information. Figure 2.8 shows the number of assessments included in the AoA virtual library from 2005 onwards (older reports are included in the virtual library, but not considered in the figure). The figure shows that most of the assessments were produced very recently. The time-series included in the assessments range up to over 20 years (Figure 2.9).
Regular assessment cycles are beneficial. It is important to keep the information up-to-date, to sustain and improve its quality, through regular evaluations and updating of the information production process (Timmerman et al., 2010a). The iterations also allow for the development of information procedures that will improve the quality of the information (e.g. Timmerman et al., 1996; UNECE, 2006; Ward et al., 1990). However, the policy relevance of environmental statistical yearbooks could be questioned as, usually, there are only minor changes year on year.
Coverage of freshwater issues
Depending on the country some freshwater environmental issues are more important than others and therefore the focus of the assessment varies between the countries. Figure 2.10 shows the various purposes of the reports in the AoA review. The figure shows that status and trend assessments and thematic assessments take the largest shares, followed by integrated and sectoral assessments.
Looking at the thematic priorities listed in Box 2.2, it appears that all topics are included when all assessments are taken into account. Figure 2.11 shows the number of reports in which individual elements are discussed. It also shows if these themes are discussed from a policy perspective, a legal perspective, if it discusses trends or hot spots, and if transboundary aspects are discussed. The numbers are averaged over the various sub-themes under one theme. In general, policy issues as well as legal issues on the themes are included in the assessments. Trends are important parts of the assessments; hot spots are included a little less and transboundary issues are least discussed. Of the themes, the ecological state is least discussed. In view of the title and subject of this chapter, looking at water and water-related ecosystems, improvement of this situation is needed.
Within these themes, there is a difference in what sub-themes are discussed and how they are discussed. The traditional issues are included, but there is much less coverage of new issues:
As this lesser attention to new issues may be due to a lack of knowledge, regional assessments can provide support. With the available knowledge, it should be possible to develop indicators and methodologies for such assessments on a regional level to give an overview of the situation. Countries can then use these regular assessments to improve their policies, but also to collect better information that, in turn, leads to an improved understanding of the national situation.
Little attention is given to transboundary issues. As many water management issues have a transboundary aspect, this is a clear omission, possibly due to lack of information from neighbouring countries. Regional assessments and exchange of information between countries could help to improve this situation. One of the few exceptions in this regard is the UNECE Convention on the protection and use of transboundary watercourses and international lakes in the UNECE region which focuses specifically on transboundary waters.
Data/information coverage
Figure 2.12 shows the various sources of data that are used for SoE and water assessments. The figure shows that statistical information is used in over 80 per cent of the assessments, regular data flows account for more than 70 per cent. Other sources are ad hoc collection exercises and project based initiatives. This shows that various sources are used for the assessments.
Information gaps were identified in almost half of the assessments. For instance, a review of assessment reports in the Eastern Europe countries found that some 29 per cent of the information needs could not be met either due to a lack of information or insufficient access to information. The gaps include:
All these issues hinder the analysis of trends and comparability of data, both between countries and within countries (see also Landsberg-Uczciwek and Zan, 2004).
Moreover, the capacity of both personnel and infrastructure to produce integrated assessments is limited and varies widely across the countries, and relates to the above-mentioned gaps. From this listing it becomes clear that the data and information collecting systems are not always sufficiently implemented. Additionally, working across national boundaries poses specific challenges to making assessments and different interpretations of existing data. Internationally coordinated activities could help reduce these problems.
Using a structured procedure to develop assessments is necessary if these are to be legitimate and credible. This entails issues such as having consistent time series of data, having representative data, both spatial (river stretch, lake area, etc.) and temporal (seasonality), together with harmonised sampling and analysis strategies, and proper data management. Peer review of assessments should be part of the quality procedures. Approximately 60 per cent of the assessments had been reviewed or put out for public consultation before publishing.
While all countries report about general water quantity and quality issues such as nutrients and heavy metals, little reporting was found about newer issues including hazardous substances, impacts of water scarcity and drought, or water management such as water pricing.
Information chain for policymaking
Over these years there has been a growing awareness of the importance of involving decision-makers and stakeholders in setting objectives and defining the scope of assessments and in targeting them as the recipients of the resulting assessments. In many assessments however, the link between the assessment and decision-makers is weak. The monitoring and data collection results are, to varying extents, reported to decision-making bodies and made available to the general public and the international community but the assessment objectives are often not clearly articulated and only a few assessments include analyses of future policy options, their potential outcomes and risks in a given situation. Moreover, linkages between socio-economic activities, status and trends, and measures that, especially when supplemented with possible futures, are most informative for decision-makers, are missing from most assessments. In the draft AoA report for the Russian Federation, for example, it explicitly says that while the status and impacts are reported, no assessment is made of possible measures and their impacts.
Some progress has been made, mostly due to the establishment of regular SoE reporting and the production of environmental statistics. Partly helped by these developments, especially the first SoE reports, countries have made progress in improving public access to environmental information. The spreading use of the DPSIR assessment framework, that provides a methodology for an integrated analysis and sets international standards, and indicators to compare status and trends internationally and over time underpin these developments. Figure 2.13 shows the use of indicators from the DPSIR indicated framework used for the SoE and water assessments as derived from the information contained in the AoA review templates The figure shows that overall state indicators are used most, pressure and impact indicators are used much less, drivers and response indicators are used least. The use of the indicators is rather evenly distributed over the priority themes; most information is provided on water quality and pollution, at least on the ecological state.
Fifty-three per cent of the indicators used in assessment reports are produced on the basis of standard/agreed methodologies and another 20 per cent is partially based on such standards and/or agreed methodologies. These standards and/or methodologies mostly originate from internationally agreed approaches while only a quarter of the methodologies have a national origin (Figure 2.14).
The widespread use of international standards and methodologies for indicators is important to improve the assessments. However, the assessments still largely focus on status, pressures and impacts, while little information is provided on the activities that cause the pressures or on water-management measures, let alone information on the water-management objectives or the level of implementation of water-management measures. There is limited evidence that the findings of the water assessments have ever been used in environmental policymaking.
Integrated assessments
Assessments should not only cover the status and trends in the environment and in pressures on the environment, but also the status of implementation of (inter)national policies and measures in the area of environmental protection as well as integrate over various disciplines (Timmerman et al., 2010b). Some improvements over the years are visible. The information presented in assessments has changed from only presenting the status of a few basic parameters on a limited number of locations to presenting status, sources, effects and policy measures on a much wider range of parameters, making them much more integrated. Also, the various stages in policymaking are addressed by the assessments (Figure 2.15).
Nevertheless, in many assessments only limited information on policy performance, water management, implementation of measures, new challenges etc. is provided. Moreover, modelling and scenario tools, that can be very helpful in producing policy-relevant information, were only used in some 21 per cent of the assessments. As a consequence, little information is provided to policymakers on possible future effects of the policies.
The design of an integrated assessment process will be helpful in raising awareness (Timmerman et al., 2000) and will improve the assessments' perceived relevance, legitimacy and credibility (UNEP and IOC-UNESCO, 2009). Capacity to develop the modalities for such a process is available at international level. For instance, Guidance is available from the European Commission (EC, 2003) and from UNECE (UNECE, 2006). Moreover, by producing regional assessments similar to the EEA SOER 2010, international organisations can, in cooperation with countries, set directions and standards for assessments, thus providing examples and support to countries that struggle with these processes. Regional assessments as produced by international organisations like EEA, OECD and UNECE, consequently help developing capacities in setting a standard and providing methodologies.
By mandating international organisations to develop integrated assessments, such organisations, with the support of countries, can work towards improving the integration. This is done by supporting data and information collection across various sectors, setting database standards that include the countries involved. Selection of indicators is helpful in this respect as it focuses on a limited amount of information which is helpful when resources are limited.
If assessments are produced in cooperation between countries and international organisations (EEA, UNECE, etc.) it would also imply more cross-referencing of the results. European results could be used by countries in their national assessments and case studies and national examples could be more used in European assessments. Country and international cooperation on assessments could also be supportive in reducing the range of sources from which data and information is currently derived.
Moreover, regional and international assessments can be helpful to improve the information on ecosystems.
Finally, international assessments help in developing a regional view of water management, which, from the river basin management perspective, is an important but often overlooked aspect. International assessments provide for a view on the river basin level and help in harmonisation across administrative borders. Countries could find substantial support from such assessments.
Linking national information to European level
The analysis presented in the previous sections shows that many water management issues that are important at the national level are related to similar issues that are important at the European level (Figure 2.16). Most data and information is collected by countries for national action/implementation, but this information is also relevant at European and global level. Therefore international water assessments are not always based on the information and knowledge available and accumulated nationally.
In the future a better data and information supply from the national water assessments to European assessments has to be ensured. The current data flows from national to European level only cover a part of the information needed and do not take sufficiently take stock of the results that come from national water assessment. By improving the access to national assessments and data, European water assessments would be based on the more specific and detailed information that is available at a country level. Moreover, the timeliness of the data and information used at the European level could be improved. An improved procedure to ensure the access of information is needed for this.
Figure 2.17 gives an impression of how a SEIS-based system could function. The benefits of such an approach lie not only at the European level, but also at the national level. The strategic objectives of the SEIS are:
To achieve this, the information should be managed as close as possible to its source, be collected once and shared with others for many purposes, be readily available and easy accessible, enable users to make comparisons at the appropriate geographical scale, be available to the general public at national level in the relevant national language(s), and be supported through common, free open software standards.
Table 2.1 gives an overview of how European assessments could be improved by a SEIS-based system in which the data and information were available at their (national) source, where results from national assessments were directly used, and in which national and European assessments cross-reference between each other.
While SoE assessments at the national level are sometimes well-elaborated, their quality varies substantially between countries. Also, while the legitimacy and credibility of many assessments is sufficient, in most cases their relevance is limited. Regional assessments could improve national assessments, but often lack the detailed national information that is available in the country. To improve this situation, a consistent common approach and close cooperation between international and national organisations is needed. The following priority challenges need concerted attention and have to be explored and discussed in the coming years:
2.4.2 Priority concerns, specific needs, emerging issues, options for future action
From the assessment of SoE and water assessments, a range of issues that play an important role in water management in various countries emerges, with each country having its specific priority concerns. These range from more technical problems of water storage or purification to institutional issues, including the implementation of international agreements such as WFD or the UNECE Water Convention, the development of bilateral or multilateral river-basin agreements, and coordination between institutions. Several countries have problems with water shortage ranging from maintaining wetlands to a shortage of drinking water and water for irrigation.
An estimated 120 million people in the pan-European region do not have access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation (WHO/UNICEF, 2010). As a result, they are more vulnerable to serious water-related diseases. Climate change is expected to aggravate this situation. Progress has been made over the past 15 years, especially for vulnerable populations and those living in rural and remote areas in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Many of the national assessments provide limited information on drinking water quality and management of drinking water. Examples of national assessments information on drinking water quality are listed below:
Water quality in most parts of Europe has improved in the past 20 years. This is due to better regulation, enforcement and investment in wastewater treatment plants, mainly in Western Europe. In the Eastern Europe, in addition to these, the economic transition since the early 1990's has helped. Moreover, throughout the region production has become cleaner, resulting in a decrease of pollution from industrial facilities. These statements are supported and described in more detail in European assessments:
Most of the national water assessments in the EEA area have information on trends in water quality and pollution sources, while the information on inland water quality and pollution sources is more scattered in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
International legislation, together with international implementation programmes, has helped countries to improve their water management and as a result improve their water quality situation. Assessment systems are in place to identify the status and trends. As however water management has become more complex, more sophisticated assessment methodologies are needed to assess the issues and the effectiveness of water management. Also here, guidance from the international level can help countries to improve their assessment, both in terms of methodology as well as from viewing the information from neighbouring countries.
The analysis of SoE and water assessments has revealed a multitude of products, containing a wealth of information. At the same time, the analysis also revealed that much information is lacking and the policy relevance of the information is weak. This is not only true of national assessments but also regional ones.
In general, the regular assessments help to improve the quality of the data and information. An important flaw in many of the assessments is that they are generally rich in statistical data but are of limited use in relation to state-of-water assessments and policymaking. To improve this situation, an enhanced process is needed that supports integrated assessments and that ensures exchange of data and information.
Improve the process
The assessment process involves setting objectives for the assessment, collecting relevant data and information, analysis and aggregation of the data and information, and disseminating the results of the analysis. Issues to be dealt with in improving the process include enhancing the capacity of personnel and infrastructure, upgrading data and information collection, developing and improving integrated analyses and strengthening the links to water policy. Both European and national assessments would benefit from a closer co-operation between European organisations (EEA, UNECE and others) and countries in improving this process by supporting the harmonisation of the process and methods across the countries. INSPIRE has already supported harmonising data management. In the coming years a data exchange system, with direct access to information/assessments stored at national and river-basin levels, compliant with the SEIS principle that information should be managed close to its source is being developed. This system will, amongst others things, ensure that, through the shared water assessment system, there is access to relevant national assessments which can be used for up-to-date European assessments. The direct access may reduce data reporting and transfer costs and ensure that there is access to disaggregated data.
Support integrated assessments
Assessments are currently over-restricted to environmental status and trends. What is needed are assessments that take an integrated approach to water issues. Especially from the river-basin management perspective, information from different countries and authorities needs to be combined. Indicators help in simplifying the communication between the different issues. The DPSIR indicator framework helps to reduce efforts for collecting data and information by focusing on a few elements. It also helps in making data comparable between institutions and countries because they are well defined. Also, including ecological information in the integrated assessments is supported in this way. Finally, it provides the structure to connect the various elements and make assessments more integrated.
Ensure exchange of data and information
Over the past 20 years, the availability of data has increased substantially. More and more, countries open up their databases for public access for reasons of accountability and trustworthiness. Where countries increasingly change to providing information through web-based databases, the procedure of the international programmes collecting information through questionnaires becomes obsolete. The SEIS principles enable a situation in which national and regional assessments can be developed with up-to-date information and without deviations between the numbers. The quality of assessments will be improved through this approach, while the ownership, especially of regional assessments, will be better shared between the international organisation and the countries involved. Moreover, the individual countries will benefit from the information coming from neighbouring countries.
To improve future assessments, based on the findings from the analysis carried out in this study, it is recommended to work towards more integrated assessments. These provide information about the status and trends but also provide future outlooks based on policy options and directions. It is also recommended to improve the sharing and exchange of data and information through improved access to such resources. This exchange should be based on the SEIS principle that the data and information is managed as close as possible to its source. EEA, UNECE and international organisations should be mandated to further develop this approach. Through this mandate and in close cooperation with the countries they are able to:
8. UN-Water, UNEP, World Water Assessment Program, UNESCO, IPCC, OECD, UNECE, etc.
9. As endorsed by the Steering Group of the AoA.
10. UN-Water, http://www.unwater.org.
11. http://www.waterfootprint.org.
12. http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications.
13. EEA member and cooperating countries.
14. http://water.europa.eu.
15. http://www.unece.org/env/water/whmop2_documents.htm.
16. http://minpriroda.by/en/nac_dokl/new_url_1244680181.
17. National sets of environmental indicators were found for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
18. Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244/1999, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom.
19. http://www.unece.org/publications/environment/epr/welcome.html.
20. http://www.oecd.org/document/22/0,3746,en_2649_34307_46271382_1_1_1_1,00.html.
21. Water Information System for Europe (WISE): http://water.europa.eu.]]>


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Kathy With a K
Remember the story about the Bamboo princess?
Posted July 15th, 2014 @ 4:47pm
Wow! This story sweeps me back to small kid time!
"The Tale of Princess Kaguya" will have American actors' voices for the crossover and the cast includes Mary Steenburgen, James Caan, Darren Criss (TV's "Glee"), John Cho (upcoming TV series, "Selfie") with Chloe Grace Moretz as the Bamboo Princess herself!. Hopefully the October 17th theatre date holds for nationwide release...