Implications of Denmark\u27s Water Price Reform for Reverine and Coastal Surface Water Quality

Article 9 of the EU’s Water Framework Directive suggests that Member States should provide “adequate incentives” for efficient use of water resources. Although the Directive is mainly about protecting the ecological quality of water bodies, control of quantity serves as an “ancillary element” in delivering on the objectives. Despite their financial difficulties, Member States have been slow to bring their policies on water pricing up to the wording and 2010 deadline of the Directive’s article 9. This Article explores the significance of water pricing reform for the ecological quality objectives for surface waters and, as a stepping stone in this analysis, for water resource efficiency. It does so with a catchment-based analysis of implications from water pricing reform introduced in the early 1990s in Denmark. Household water use is found to have been 50% higher per capita before the reform, which introduced full-cost pricing and a water supply tax. Good data availability for the catchment allows the analysis to demonstrate estimates for the improvements in water flows as well as for a specific water quality parameter. Despite the significant reduction in water demand, the main river is affected only at the margin. For smaller streams and brooks, however, there are more notable impacts for water quality and with potential benefits for rare species dependent on clean waters. A small reduction in emission loadings to coastal waters has comparatively high economic value. The Article finds that water pricing has an important role to play for future management

A simplified nitrogen assessment in Tagus river basin: a management focused review

ReviewInteractions among nitrogen (N) management and water resources quality are complex and enhanced in transboundary river basins. This is the case of Tagus River, which is an important river flowing from Spain to Portugal in the Iberian Peninsula. The aim was to provide a N assessment review along the Tagus River Basin regarding mostly agriculture, livestock, and urban activities. To estimate reactive nitrogen (Nr) load into surface waters, emission factor approaches were applied. Nr pressures are much higher in Spain than in Portugal (~13 times), which is mostly because of livestock intensification. Some policy and technical measures have been defined aiming at solving this problem. Main policy responses were the designation of Nitrate Vulnerable and Sensitive Zones, according to European Union (EU) directives. Nitrate Vulnerable Zone comprise approximately one third of both territories. On the contrary, Sensitive Zones are more extended in Spain, attaining 60% of the watershed, against only 30% in Portugal. Technical measures comprised advanced urban and industrial wastewater treatment that was designed to remove N compounds before discharge in the water bodies. Given this assessment, Tagus River Basin sustainability can only be guaranteed through load inputs reductions and effective transnational management processes of water flowsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Nitrogen in water-Portugal and Denmark: two contrasting realities

ReviewAgricultural activities are responsible for most of the nitrogen (N) inputs that degrade water quality. To elucidate the drivers leading to N pressures on water, we examined the resulting state of surface waters in terms of N concentrations, the impact of this on water quality status and policy responses to these constraints across different climatic and management conditions. Portugal and Denmark were chosen as contrasting case studies for the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) analysis. Our results showed reductions of 39% and 25% in the use of mineral fertilizer in Portugal and Denmark, respectively, between 2000 and 2010. The N surplus in Portugal varied between 15 and 30 kg N ha -1 between 1995 and 2015. In Denmark, in 2015, this amount was 70 kg N ha -1, representing a 53% decrease from the 1990 value. The average amount of total N discharged to surface waters was 7 kg ha -1 for mainland Portugal in 2015 and 14.6 kg ha -1 for Denmark in 2014. These reductions in the N surplus were attributed to historical policies aimed at N pressure abatement. In Denmark, N losses are expected to decline further through the continuation or improvement of existing national action plans. In Portugal, they are expected to decline further due to the expansion of Nitrate Vulnerable Zones and the introduction of targeted policies aimed at improving N use effciency and reducing losses to waterinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Impacts of changing society and climate on nutrient loading to the Baltic Sea

This paper studies the relative importance of societal drivers and changing climate on anthropogenic nutrient inputs to the Baltic Sea. Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and Representative Concentration Pathways are extended at temporal and spatial scales relevant for the most contributing sectors. Extended socioeconomic and climate scenarios are then used as inputs for spatially and temporally detailed models for population and land use change, and their subsequent impact on nutrient loading is computed. According to the model simulations, several factors of varying influence may either increase or decrease total nutrient loads. In general, societal drivers outweigh the impacts of changing climate. Food demand is the most impactful driver, strongly affecting land use and nutrient loads from agricultural lands in the long run. In order to reach the good environmental status of the Baltic Sea, additional nutrient abatement efforts should focus on phosphorus rather than nitrogen. Agriculture is the most important sector to be addressed under the conditions of gradually increasing precipitation in the region and increasing global demand for food. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

EUSEDcollab: a network of data from European catchments to monitor net soil erosion by water

As a network of researchers we release an open-access database (EUSEDcollab) of water discharge and suspended sediment yield time series records collected in small to medium sized catchments in Europe. EUSEDcollab is compiled to overcome the scarcity of open-access data at relevant spatial scales for studies on runoff, soil loss by water erosion and sediment delivery. Multi-source measurement data from numerous researchers and institutions were harmonised into a common time series and metadata structure. Data reuse is facilitated through accompanying metadata descriptors providing background technical information for each monitoring station setup. Across ten European countries, EUSEDcollab covers over 1600 catchment years of data from 245 catchments at event (11 catchments), daily (22 catchments) and monthly (212 catchments) temporal resolution, and is unique in its focus on small to medium catchment drainage areas (median=43km2, min=0.04km2, max=817km2) with applicability for soil erosion research. We release this database with the aim of uniting people, knowledge and data through the European Union Soil Observatory (EUSO)