The implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in Austria: Status as of March 2005 Hellmut Fleckseder / Wolfgang Stalzer Seite 1 29.05.2006
Austrian territory discharges to three international river basin districts: Danube / Elbe / Rhine VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 2 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Some Information on Austria Size: officially 83,858 km²; in 2005 ~ 8.1 Mio. inhabitants. Gross domestic product in 2005 ~ 27,000 per inhabitant and year Services followed by industry/trade furnish the main incomes Land use: 62% mountainous; arable land ~ 17%; pasture ~ 25%; forests ~ 47% Water in / from Austria in relation to the three international river basins: Federal Republic formed by 9 Länder (Provinces) Single Water Act valid all over, Provinces mainly charged with its implementation EU Water Framework Directive legally transposed into the Water Act in 2003 VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 3 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Population and tourism density based on permanently inhabitable land VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 4 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Information on Austria and WFD Implementation Hydrologically allocated planning units are set up within Austria Towards the River Danube Basin: 6 planning units Towards the River Elbe and River Rhine Basins: 1 planning unit each Co-ordination in river basin districts: bilaterally for smaller-scale tasks In basin-wide bodies (e.g. ICPDR) for multi-lateral and basin-wide issues The river network within Austria for sub-basins > 100 km²: holds ~ 12,000 km of river length; a total of ~ 1,000 water bodies (WB: ø12 km) The river network within Austria for sub-basins from 10 to 100 km²: holds ~ 20,000 km of river length; water bodies are at present assessed. Lakes and Groundwater Bodies (GWBs) within Austria: 62 lakes > 50 ha; 135 GWBs and groups of GWBs (50 to 1,000 km²) VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 5 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Political and hydrologic boundaries within Austria VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 6 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Approaches and results on the typology of surface waters See Annex XI WFD Map A Danube, Rhine, March / Thaya,.. >> individual rivers Bioregions sub-divided longitudinally! VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 7 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
From the typology via the selection of surface water bodies to the description of pressures, risk of failing good status and HMWBs.. Basic delineation of surface water bodies (WBs): types are clearly separated one from the other WBs encompass all changes in types along the water courses maximal length of a water body is predominantly determined by the status of nature ( naturräumlicher Zustand ) this approach leads to a basic number of water bodies Basic water bodies are subdivided according to pressure (and/or) status (and/or) risk Result: rivers > 100 km².. ~ 1,000 WBs with an average length of ~ 12 km For the delineation of the WBs the pressures were described, the risk of failing good status has been assessed, as well as the provisional identification of heavily modified water bodies. Data cover primarily the monitoring period 2002 to 2004. VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 8 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Salzburg region as an example. VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 9 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
and places nearby of Salzburg.. VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 10 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
and places nearby of Salzburg.. VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 11 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Result as map: Surface water types allocated (2004) VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 12 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Result as map: Surface water bodies delineated (2004) VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 13 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Result as map for the pressures: Residual water flow, hydropower peaking, backwater (2004) VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 14 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Result as map for the pressure: Longitudinal interruptions not passable by fish (2004) VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 15 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Result as map for the pressure: Alteration of morphology (2004) VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 16 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Result as map: In-stream conditions including organic pollution, nutrients, hazardous substances and sapro-biological water quality (2004) VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 17 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Risk of failing good status, general parameters and sapro-biology quite similar for all other types of substance pollution parameters. VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 18 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Risk of failing to reach the good status for surface water bodies (2004) VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 19 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Past morphological changes, Salzach close to Kaprun VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 20 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
The risk of failing to reach good status for water bodies in rivers > 100 km² in Austria, Year 2004 VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 21 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Provisional identification of heavily modified water bodies, region east- and southwards of Salzburg (2004) For all of Austria, and rivers > 100 km²: 44% provisionally identified as HMWBs VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 22 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
. downloadable resources available from the homepage of Lebensministerium at Vienna, in general in German. Results on the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in Austria are available from: Report see http://gpool.lfrz.at/gpoolexport/media/file/ergebnisbaende.zip (14.2 MByte), Annex see http://gpool.lfrz.at/gpoolexport/media/file/anhang-tabellen.pdf (small) and overview maps see http://gpool.lfrz.at/gpoolexport/media/file/uebersichtskarten_und_kartenv erzeichnis.zip (2.8 MByte). More detailed maps and the summary (in German and English) are found under http://wasser.lebensministerium.at/article/archive/5738, and there onwards to whatever is of interest. VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 23 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation
Austria in the River Danube Basin District >>> see www.icpdr.org, and there the full Year 2004 Roof Report The attached map serves only as an example VUVH SK 2006 Jubilee Conference Page 24 of 24 Austria EU WFD Implementation