IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/waterr/v32y2018i15d10.1007_s11269-018-2137-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental Flows Under the WFD Implementation

Author

Listed:
  • Vanessa Ramos

    (Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto)

  • Nuno Formigo

    (Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto)

  • Rodrigo Maia

    (Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto)

Abstract

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) is the first piece of European environmental legislation addressing hydromorphological modifications and impacts on water bodies. Accordingly, in those water bodies where the hydromorphological pressures are having an impact on the ecological status, action is needed to achieve WFD objectives. Environmental flows appeared as one of the answers to this challenge. Due to their importance, Member States (MSs) have been looking to integrate ecological flows in the River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) and Programmes of Measures (PoMs). More than seventeen years after the WFD adoption, this study aims to provide a systematic review of the use of environmental flows within the process of WFD implementation and their contribution to the achievement of environmental objectives. In order to achieve the goals of the study, a special analysis was done using: i) the WFD official documentation reporting the progress of WFD and environmental flows definition and implementation (such as the CIS Guidance n° 31), as well as, ii) the answers to key questions addressed to EU MSs representatives involved in the implementation of environmental flows. These enabled us to perceive how this topic has been addressed in MSs. Based on the gathered information the authors assessed whether a change in the environmental flows’ situation, between the 1st and 2nd RBMPs, has occurred by each MS, or whether progress on environmental flows assessments has been made. Furthermore, this study also highlights some MSs representatives comments related with the role of the Guidance n°31 and some relevant information related with the 3rd RBMPs. Even though an evolution on environmental flows assessments can be perceived, with an increase in MSs defining and incorporating environmental flows within the 2nd RBMPs and in the complexity of the conducted approaches, there is still a long way to go. Namely, it could be highlighted that more efforts are required for the: i) implementation of environmental flows and the monitoring of its effects in the water bodies status, ii) development of a verifiable link between environmental flows and biological indicators.

Suggested Citation

  • Vanessa Ramos & Nuno Formigo & Rodrigo Maia, 2018. "Environmental Flows Under the WFD Implementation," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 32(15), pages 5115-5149, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:32:y:2018:i:15:d:10.1007_s11269-018-2137-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11269-018-2137-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-018-2137-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11269-018-2137-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rodrigo Maia, 2017. "The WFD Implementation in the European Member States," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(10), pages 3043-3060, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cornel Ilinca & Cristian Gabriel Anghel, 2023. "Re-Thinking Ecological Flow in Romania: A Sustainable Approach to Water Management for a Healthier Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-19, June.
    2. Masahiko Nakai & Taku Masumoto & Takashi Asaeda, 2024. "Strategic Siting of Hydroelectric Power Plants to Power Railway Operations with Renewable Energy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-16, August.
    3. Vassilios A. Tsihrintzis & Harris Vangelis, 2018. "Water Resources and Environment," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 32(15), pages 4813-4817, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Charalampos Skoulikaris, 2021. "Transboundary Cooperation Through Water Related EU Directives’ Implementation Process. The Case of Shared Waters Between Bulgaria and Greece," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 35(14), pages 4977-4993, November.
    2. George Tsakiris, 2017. "Facets of Modern Water Resources Management: Prolegomena," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(10), pages 2899-2904, August.
    3. Carlos Llopis-Albert & José M. Merigó & Huchang Liao & Yejun Xu & Juan Grima-Olmedo & Carlos Grima-Olmedo, 2018. "Water Policies and Conflict Resolution of Public Participation Decision-Making Processes Using Prioritized Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) Operators," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 32(2), pages 497-510, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:32:y:2018:i:15:d:10.1007_s11269-018-2137-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.