Finland reorganised its environmental administration in 1995 when thirteen Regional Environmental Centres (RECs) and one national agency called the Finnish Environment Institute (FEI) were created. The REC's and the FEI have been entrusted with functions related to water resources management. RECs and FEI together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Foresty have appointed a steering group which will supervise the implementation of the EC Water Framework Directive in Finlan

Makinen, Heikki

Maunala, Markku

Pietilainen, Olli-Pekka

English

Aquatic Commons

PREPARATION FOR IMPFEMENTING THE WFD IN FINFAND 33 
PREPARATION FOR IMPLEMENTING THE PROPOSED 
EC WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE IN FINLAND 
MARKKU MAUNULA, HEIKKI MÄAKINEN 
AND OLLI-PEKKA PIETILÄINEN 
(M. Maunula, MSc (Water Resources Management), 
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, P.O. Box 30, FIN-00023 
Government, Helsinki; H. Mäkinen, PhL (Planning Geography) MPolSc 
and O. -P. Pietiläinen, MSc (Limnology), Finnish Environment Institute, 
F1N-00251 Helsinki, Finland.) 
Introduction 
Finland reorganised its environmental administration in 1995, when 
thirteen Regional Environment Centres (RECs) and one national agency 
called the Finnish Environment Institute (FEI) were created. The former 
are the licensing and supervisory authorities, whilst the FEI is responsible 
for monitoring, research and development on a national level. The RECs 
and the FEI have also been entrusted with functions related to water 
resources management. 
The regional centres and the FEI are administratively subordinate to the 
Ministry of the Environment in a general sense, but perform their water 
resources management functions under the guidance of the Ministry of 
Agriculture and Forestry. 
Organisation of implementation-related studies at national level 
Steering group 
To lay the groundwork for implementation of the WFD in Finland, a 
steering group comprising representatives of the Ministry of the 
Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the RECs and the 
FEI has been appointed. It is producing proposals concerning the 
administrative and legislative measures that will be needed, determination 
of the status and classification of waterbodies, together with guidelines to 
be followed in preparing the Programmes of Measures and drafting River 
Basin Management Plans. 
The steering group's work programme for the year 2000 includes the 
following theme categories: classification of surface waters, monitoring of 
surface waterbodies, research needs, river basin planning, pilot areas, 
groundwater issues, priority substances, administrative arrangements, 
public consultation and providing information. 
34 MARKKU MAUNULA, HEIKKI MAKINEN & OLLI-PEKKA PIETILAINEN 
Expert group on ecological classification 
On the recommendation of the steering group, a separate expert group has 
been appointed to plan and coordinate research projects that will facilitate 
implementation of the WFD, to develop a system for classifying 
waterbodies according to their ecological status and to make proposals 
concerning the development of systems for monitoring and inspecting the 
status of surface and groundwater resources. The WFD will require 
considerable changes in existing programmes for monitoring and 
overseeing compliance with obligations. The reasons for this include a 
greater emphasis on biological methods and the more frequent 
observations and reports that the WFD calls for. 
Expert group on coastal waters 
An expert group responsible for dealing with coastal issues has likewise 
been appointed. Its duties will include classifying coastal waters by type 
and carrying out subsequent classification and development of monitoring. 
Expert group on groundwaters 
The expert group on groundwater issues makes proposals concerning 
classification of groundwater bodies by status, definition of the 
characteristic features of groundwater areas, and organising monitoring. 
We shall have to make our monitoring of groundwater quality more 
effective. 
Steering group on water resources management research projects 
A steering group with responsibility for co-ordinating and guiding research 
projects, supporting implementation of the WFD's provisions concerning 
regulated and artificial waterbodies, has also been appointed. 
Committees to revise the Water Act and the Environmental Protection Act 
The WFD will require amendment of existing Finnish legislation 
regulating the use and protection of water resources, principally the Water 
Act and the Environmental Protection Act. Committees to revise these two 
acts have been launched recently. Their terms of reference include also the 
amendments required for the transposition and implementation of the 
WFD. Legislation concerning the structure of the environmental 
administration will likewise have to be revised. A proposal for a new 
Water Services Act also takes into account the requirements of the WFD. 
PREPARATION FOR IMPLEMENTING THE WFD IN FINLAND 3 5 
Future expert groups 
In the near future, expert groups on priority substances and statutory 
monitoring (i.e. local pollution control based on the 'polluter-pays' 
principle) will be founded. 
Organisation of implementation-related studies at regional level 
To ascertain the practical effects of the WFD's implementation, Finland 
has designated pilot areas, where the practical arrangement of plans, 
programmes and monitoring will be tested. These areas are the Vuoksi 
river system, representing a lake district, and the province of Western 
Finland, representing a region of rivers. There are five regional water 
authorities in the Vuoksi area and four in Western Finland. The 
organisation of administration in the pilot areas will also be handled. 
Each of the pilot areas has an administrative group, a planning group and 
a monitoring group to prepare for implementation of the directive. The 
main goals in the pilot projects are to address the following questions: what 
kind of measures does the implementation require; how should the 
implementation be organised; how much and what kind of resources are 
needed? 
The main idea of the pilot projects is to go through the various 
alternatives of the implementation process. Among the most important 
aspects are the ambition levels in defining water quality targets in 
planning, monitoring and reporting, and cost effects related to them. The 
work programmes include drafting guidelines for future work and 
evaluating the significance of a pilot area's size. 
Major ongoing issues 
Division into River Basin Districts 
The main goal of the WFD is to achieve a good status of surface and 
groundwater resources throughout the EU. It requires each member state to 
assign the river basins lying within its territory to individual River Basin 
Districts (RBDs) in order to ensure the administrative arrangements 
necessary for effective application of the WFD. Where a river basin 
extends beyond its territory, the member state concerned must endeavour 
to assign the whole river basin to an international RBD. 
Both natural and human geography must be taken into account in the 
demarcation of individual RBDs. The two main watersheds in Finland, 
Maanselkä and Suomenselkä, divide the country into three catchments, 
which drain into the Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of 
36 MARKKU MAUNULA, HEIKKI MAKINEN & OLLI-PEKKA PIETILAINEN 
Finland, respectively. Within these areas, the most important - albeit 
inadequate - basis for division into RBDs is the location of the borders 
between the main regional authorities concerned. These authorities are 
Regional Environment Centres, Regional Councils and Employment, and 
Economic Development Centres. 
Two main alternative proposals have been tentatively introduced 
according to which the country would be divided into either eight or ten 
RBDs based on consideration of both natural and human geography. In 
both alternatives, Finland and Sweden should create an international RBD 
around the River Tornionjoki. Finland and Sweden have started to examine 
jointly how the requirements of the WFD should be implemented in the 
River Basin District and what the implications are to the Border River 
Agreement between the two countries. Finland should also create at least 
one Agreement with Norway (for the Rivers Tenojoki, Näätämänjoki, 
Uutuanjoki and Paatsjoki) and possibly with Russia (e.g. the Rivers 
Paatsjoki and Neva). 
Characterisation of surface waters 
The WFD requires surface water formations to be classed as types on the 
basis of their physical, geographical and chemical properties. These types, 
in turn, will serve as a foundation for the ecological classification of 
surface waterbodies, to be used in setting the goal, i.e. a good status, to be 
aspired to, and in monitoring progress towards it. Reference conditions, 
which must correspond to a natural state, must be stipulated for each type. 
The lake types to be distinguished must be significant, especially in the 
biological sense, but practical implementation must also be taken into 
account. 
There are three regions to be distinguished on the basis of natural 
geography as the WFD requires: The Baltic Sea, the Fennoscandian Shield 
and the Northern Uplands. Most of Finland (and Sweden) lies in the 
Fennoscandian Shield region. The WFD applies to lakes larger than 0.5 
km2, of which there are around 4500 in Finland. Their combined area is 
about 33,350 km2, or roughly 85% of the total lake area. The 47 biggest 
lakes, each with a surface area exceeding 100 km2, account for about half 
of the total area to which the WFD applies. The average depth of our lakes 
is known for only about 800. In the light of the data available, our lakes are 
fairly evenly divided between shallow (less than 3 m) and medium depths 
(3 to 15 m). The most important ecological fluctuations relate to nutrient 
levels and humus content. 
PREPARATION FOR IMPLEMENTING THE WFD IN FINLAND 3 7 
Research activities 
For implementation of the WPD, numerous questions arise and extensive 
research is needed. The following research projects have been started and 
they will last for at least 2 to 3 years. 
• The control mechanisms required by the WFD and its Finnish 
implementation. 
• The regulating system for the cost recovery principle. 
• Ecological basis for the discrimination, classification and monitoring of 
Finnish lakes. 
• The basis for typology and classification of the regulated lakes and 
reservoirs. 
• Typology and restoration of the lakes of lowered water level. 
• Typology, ecological classification and monitoring of Finnish rivers. 
• The assessment of monitoring data to define the ecological status and 
developing biological monitoring of coastal waters. 
• The implementation of the monitoring programmes required by the 
WFD. 
• The analysis of fish community structure as a basis for the development 
of ecological classification and monitoring of surface waters. 
• Macrophytes in littoral monitoring; developing the optimal 
methodology. 
• Applicability of periphyton methods for biomonitoring and classifying 
ecological status in the Vuoksi watercourse, in the littoral and pelagic 
zones. 
• The biodiversity, ecological management and restoration methods for 
northern water systems. 
• Ecological status of streams in the Vuoksi River Basin District. 
3 8 MARKKU MAUNULA, HEIKKI MAKINEN & OLLI-PEKKA PIETILAINEN 
• Impact of forestry practices on the ecological status of headwaters in the 
Vuoksi River Basin District. 
• The application of the WFD in heavily modified waterbodies in Europe 
- The Lake Kemijärvi case study. 
In addition to these ongoing projects, several new ones concentrating on 
coastal waters, groundwaters, priority substances and statutory monitoring 
have been started or will begin in the near future. 
Concluding remarks 
It would be advisable for Finland and Sweden to co-operate to ensure that 
the Nordic view finds clear expression. Problems associated with the use 
and quality of waterbodies in the lake-rich Nordic countries are markedly 
different from those experienced further south in Europe. The starting 
point for the European Community's efforts to protect water resources is 
that classification of the quality of waterbodies in Europe must be clearly 
and unambiguously commensurable. 
The requirements set for the Tornionjoki River Basin District should be 
compatible with the other districts, both in Finland and in Sweden. This 
requires a certain level of harmonisation in implementation. 
There is also a need for common thinking on, for example, the following 
questions. 
• On what spatial scale should surface waterbodies be classified by type 
and monitored? What does economical analysis mean in practice? 
• What should we do in order to get a reliable and comparable 
classification system for European surface waters? 
• What should we do at an international level when implementing the 
WFD? 


Preparation for implementing the proposed EC Water Framework Directive in Finland

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Preparation for implementing the proposed EC Water Framework Directive in Finland

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