AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment

AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment 35(6):304-311. 2006
doi: 10.1579/06-A-128R.1

International River Basin Management under the EU Water Framework Directive: An Assessment of Cooperation and Water Quality in the Baltic Sea Drainage Basin

Susanna Nilsson is a PhD student at the Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology KTH. She is specializing in the use of environmental information and the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in international river basins. Her address: Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Brinellvägen 28, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden. susanna@kth.se

Dr. Sindre Langaas is a Senior Officer at the County Administrative Board of Stockholm where he is currently engaged in EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) implementation. Besides striving towards effective and efficient WFD implementation his current interests concern the role and use of environmental information in environmental management, in particular transboundary water management, but also the interface between river basin planning and conventional physical planning. Part of his work related to this paper was conducted at the Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) where he held a position as researcher. His address: County Administrative Board of Stockholm, Environmental Information Unit, Box 22067, SE-104 22 Stockholm, Sweden. sindre.langaas@ab.lst.se

Abstract

We address issues connected with international river basin management and the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). By creating a register of River Basin Districts established under the WFD, we show that the number and area of international River Basin Districts are significant. Further, we present an assessment of international cooperation and water quality in 14 international river basins in the Baltic Sea Drainage Basin. Our results indicate that the WFD is a push forward for international river basin management in the region. However the WFD in general, and the principle of river basin management in particular, may be hard to implement in river basins shared between EU Member States and countries outside the EU. According to the study, Vistula, Pregola, and Nemunas appear to be the international basins within the Baltic Sea Drainage Basin in greatest need of intensified cooperation with regard to the state of the water quality.

Received: January 12, 2006; Revised: May 4, 2006; Accepted: June 16, 2006

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Figure 1. RBDs in Europe with (a) international RBDs (dark blue) and (b) international river basins within RBDs (pink)

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Figure 2. Characteristics of the 35 international RBDs. (a) Different types of countries sharing RBDs. (b) Number of countries sharing RBDs

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Figure 3. RBDs in the BSDB with (a) 13 international RBDs (dark blue) and (b) 14 main international river basins within the RBDs (pink)

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Figure 4. Framework of analysis used for exploring international river basin management in the BSDB. The framework tries to connect the “degree of cooperation” (limited to extensive cooperation) with the “water quality” (bad to good water quality). This may highlight the most critical basins—with regard to cooperation and water quality—of the 14 international river basins included in the case study

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Figure 5. Plotting of cooperation scores with water quality ranking scores (both for pressure and state rankings) for the 14 international river basins in the case study of the BSDB

Table 1. International RBDs and international river basins in the BSBD

Table 2. Overall assessment of cooperation in the 14 international river basins included in the case study of the BSDB based on six indicators

Table 3. Water quality ranking scores for the 14 international river basins included in the case study of the BSDB

Cited by

Beatrice Hedelin. (2008) Criteria for the assessment of processes for sustainable river basin management and their congruence with the EU Water Framework Directive. European Environment 18:4, 228-242
Online publication date: 1-Aug-2008.
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