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The European Union's Water Framework Directive (WFD) required Member States to establish programmes of measures to achieve good water status formally by 2015, but on postponing the deadline by two six-year periods, by 2027 at the latest. With many Member States facing problems with developing such measures in the first planning cycle, and limited change in ecological status since the first river basin management plans were reported, we look at the implementation of the Directive in England, where only 17% of the surface water bodies were found at good status in 2015, a reduction of 4% since 2009. Using as a case study the Broadland Rivers catchment, we examine the measures taken for Cycle 1 and changes in the classifications of water body status, to investigate whether the way the measures were developed could have limited their potential to deliver WFD objectives. While the WFD was adopted to succeed and replace management practices targeting individually non-compliant element, findings indicate that little had changed in the way measures were developed. Although considerable progress has been made on the implementation of these measures, the limited progress in improving classifications demonstrates the limits of this approach and further makes the case for what the WFD was introduced for: the harmonised transposition of the Integrated River Basin Management paradigm, as the key for delivering good ecological status.

Nutrient enrichment and eutrophication can negatively impact on freshwater ecosystems, estuarine and coastal waters. As a result of improvements in nutrient management and regulation, there has been a large reduction in total phosphorus, total ammonia and total nitrogen emissions from Irish catchments in recent decades. However, half of Irish river water bodies still require improvements to bring them to Good status, as required by the Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000/60/EC). The Catchment Management Support Tools for Characterisation and Evaluation of Programme of Measures project, or CatchmentTools project, developed data analysis tools and models for assessing nutrients in Irish catchments to support catchment scientists and managers to (1) characterise nutrient sources, pathways and receptors in catchments and (2) assess potential mitigation measures. Environmental Protection Agency

22 physicochemical variables have been determined in water samples collected weekly from January to December in 2013 from three sampling stations located within a major drinking water reservoir. Classical Multivariate Curve Resolution Alternating Least Squares (MCR-ALS) analysis was used to investigate the environmental factors associated with the physico-chemical variability of the water samples at each of the sampling stations. Matrix augmentation MCR-ALS (MA-MCR-ALS) was also applied, and the two sets of results were compared for interpretative clarity. Links between these factors, reservoir inflows and catchment land-uses were investigated and interpreted in relation to chemical composition of the water and their resolved geographical distribution profiles. The results suggested that the major factors affecting reservoir water quality were those associated with agricultural runoff, with evidence of influence on algal photosynthesis within the water column. Water quality variability within the reservoir was also found to be strongly linked to physical parameters such as water temperature and the occurrence of thermal stratification. The two methods applied (MCR-ALS and MA-MCR-ALS) led to similar conclusions; however, MA-MCR-ALS appeared to provide results more amenable to interpretation of temporal and geological variation than those obtained through classical MCR-ALS., {"references":["Reghunath, R., T. S. Murthy, and B. Raghavan, The utility of multivariate statistical techniques in hydrogeochemical studies: an example from Karnataka, India. Water Research, 2002. 36(10): p. 2437-2442.","Simeonov, V., et al., Lake water monitoring data assessment by multivariate statistics. Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 2010. 2(04): p. 353.","Tauler, R., Multivariate curve resolution applied to second order data. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 1995. 30(1): p. 133-146.","Tauler, R., A. Smilde, and B. Kowalski, Selectivity, local rank, three‐way data analysis and ambiguity in multivariate curve resolution. Journal of Chemometrics, 1995. 9(1): p. 31-58.","Tauler, R., B. Kowalski, and S. Fleming, Multivariate curve resolution applied to spectral data from multiple runs of an industrial process. Analytical Chemistry, 1993. 65(15): p. 2040-2047.","Salau, J. S. I., et al., Input characterization of sedimentary organic contaminants and molecular markers in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea by exploratory data analysis. Environmental Science & Technology, 1997. 31(12): p. 3482-3490.","Tauler, R., D. Barcelo, and E. M. Thurman, Multivariate correlation between concentrations of selected herbicides and derivatives in outflows from selected US Midwestern reservoirs. Environmental Science & Technology, 2000. 34(16): p. 3307-3314.","Jolliffe, I. T., Principal Component Analysis and Factor Analysis, in Principal component analysis. 1986, Springer. p. 115-128.","Massart, D., et al., Straight line regression and calibration. Handbook of Chemometrics and Qualimetrics. Part A, 1998: p. 171-230.\n[10]\tWold, S., K. Esbensen, and P. Geladi, Principal component analysis. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 1987. 2(1-3): p. 37-52.\n[11]\tLawton, W. H. and E. A. Sylvestre, Self modeling curve resolution. Technometrics, 1971. 13(3): p. 617-633.\n[12]\tPaatero, P., et al., Understanding and controlling rotations in factor analytic models. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 2002. 60(1): p. 253-264.\n[13]\tRuckebusch, C. and L. Blanchet, Multivariate curve resolution: A review of advanced and tailored applications and challenges. Analytica Chimica Acta, 2013. 765(Supplement C): p. 28-36.\n[14]\tMouton, N., et al., Hybrid hard- and soft-modeling approach for the resolution of convoluted femtosecond spectrokinetic data. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 2011. 105(1): p. 74-82.\n[15]\tGiussani, B., et al., A chemometric approach to the investigation of major and minor ion chemistry in lake Como (Lombardia, Northern Italy). Annali Di Chimica, 2006. 96(5‐6): p. 339-346.\n[16]\tTerrado, M., D. Barceló, and R. Tauler, Identification and distribution of contamination sources in the Ebro river basin by chemometrics modelling coupled to geographical information systems. Talanta, 2006. 70(4): p. 691-704.\n[17]\tTauler, R., et al., Chemometric modeling of main contamination sources in surface waters of Portugal. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 2004. 23(3): p. 565-575.\n[18]\tTauler, R., I. Marqués, and E. Casassas, Multivariate curve resolution applied to three‐way trilinear data: Study of a spectrofluorimetric acid–base titration of salicylic acid at three excitation wavelengths. Journal of Chemometrics, 1998. 12(1): p. 55-75.\n[19]\tAlier, M., et al., Trilinearity and component interaction constraints in the multivariate curve resolution investigation of NO and O3 pollution in Barcelona. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 2011. 399(6): p. 2015-2029.\n[20]\tSmilde, A., R. Bro, and P. Geladi, Multi-way analysis: applications in the chemical sciences. 2005: John Wiley & Sons.\n[21]\tBosco, M., M. Callao, and M. Larrechi, Resolution of phenol, and its di-hydroxyderivative mixtures by excitation–emission fluorescence using MCR-ALS: Application to the quantitative monitoring of phenol photodegradation. Talanta, 2007. 72(2): p. 800-807.\n[22]\tDe Juan, A. and R. Tauler, Comparison of three‐way resolution methods for non‐trilinear chemical data sets. Journal of Chemometrics, 2001. 15(10): p. 749-771.\n[23]\tGalera, M. M., M. G. García, and H. Goicoechea, The application to wastewaters of chemometric approaches to handling problems of highly complex matrices. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 2007. 26(11): p. 1032-1042.\n[24]\tJaumot, J., et al., A graphical user-friendly interface for MCR-ALS: a new tool for multivariate curve resolution in MATLAB. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 2005. 76(1): p. 101-110.\n[25]\tCole, B. and B. Williams, Grahamstown DamWater Quality & Aquatic Ecological Functioning, A compilation of Scientific and Adaptive Management Studies. 2011 (unpublished report).\n[26]\tvan den Berg, R.A., et al., Centering, scaling, and transformations: improving the biological information content of metabolomics data. BMC Genomics, 2006. 7(1): p. 142.\n[27]\tSmilde, A. K., et al., Fusion of Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics Data. Analytical Chemistry, 2005. 77(20): p. 6729-6736.\n[28]\tWilhelm, S. and R. Adrian, Impact of summer warming on the thermal characteristics of a polymictic lake and consequences for oxygen, nutrients and phytoplankton. Freshwater Biology, 2008. 53(2): p. 226-237.\n[29]\tVerspagen, J. M., et al., Rising CO2 levels will intensify phytoplankton blooms in eutrophic and hypertrophic lakes. PLoS One, 2014. 9(8): p. e104325.\n[30]\tMüller, S., S. M. Mitrovic, and D. S. Baldwin, Oxygen and dissolved organic carbon control release of N, P and Fe from the sediments of a shallow, polymictic lake. Journal of Soils and Sediments, 2016. 16(3): p. 1109-1120."]}

Agricultural diffuse pollution is a major environmental issue within the UK. Within England alone, sediment and phosphates in agricultural runoff account for 2967 rivers failing their Water Framework Directive (WFD) water quality targets. Effective end-of-pipe solution sediment control measures include silt fences, buffer strips and berms. However, with the exception of buffer strips, these are not widely used in agricultural lands. Furthermore in terms of extreme rainfall events, their long-term efficacy is limited or unproven, as well as their ability to also remove orthophosphate. Filter socks (FS) are widely used as construction site sediment control within the USA, and could provide another mitigation option; however there has been limited testing for a UK environment, and their current fill media does not aid orthophosphate removal. Phosphorus sorbing materials (PSMs) are widely used within the wastewater treatment industry to remove orthophosphate. This research evaluated the efficacy of PSM amended FS to concurrently remove sediment, sediment-bound phosphate, and orthophosphate. In Phase 1, FS were evaluated in terms of their sediment removal ability, with and without a proprietary PSM, under UK agricultural field conditions. Runoff and eroded sediment was collected from erosion plots under a maize cropping regime. The 9-month replicated field trial results indicated variable results. The fill media produced an initial release of fines and orthophosphate after installation, although this declined over time. This flush event significantly increased the amount of sediment and orthophosphate found within the runoff of the FS compared to the runoff from the control, in sampling period 1. By the last sampling period, irrespective of fill-media (Woodchip or PAS 100 Compost), FS reduced runoff sediment load compared to the non-FS control. Orthophosphate removal was not increased by the addition of the proprietary PSM. Consequently a range of alternative PSMs were evaluated in Phase 2. Alternative PSMs were identified from a literature review. Their ability to remove orthophosphate was established through a fully replicated column experiment over a range of orthophosphate concentrations (0.08 – 1.30 mg P l⁻¹). The results indicate that ferrihydrite and goethite ochres were significantly more effective than all other treatments, with orthophosphate removal efficiencies ranging from 51 – 99 % and 32 –94 %, respectively. Furthermore the ferrihydrite ochre was the only PSM to reduce the orthophosphate concentration to below that of the water quality target for the Lugg river catchment (0.05 mg P l⁻¹). As the most effective PSMs, these were taken forward to Phase 3 where PSM amended FS were assessed for concurrent sediment, sediment-bound phosphate and orthophosphate removal under simulated laboratory experiments. Efficacy and performance was established across a series of replicated laboratory experiments using a rainfall-runoff simulator. These incorporated extreme rainfall events (80 mm hr⁻¹ intensity, 5 - 25 min duration), representing return periods of 5, 18,41, 74 and 126 yr for the Lugg catchment, Herefordshire. These used an erodible sandy loam soil that represented the dominant erodible soil type of the Lugg catchment, and a 17o slope representing the 80th Percentile slope for these erodible soils within the Lugg catchment. There were no significant differences in sediment removal efficiency between the treatments, irrespective of fill media (Woodchip or PAS 100 Compost), PSM (ferrihydrite ochre, goethite ochre, proprietary product), or rainfall event. Sediment removal efficiencies ranged from 66 – 97%. Treatments consistently removed up to 88% and 82% of eroded clay and silt sized particles, which is significant for the effective removal of sediment-bound phosphate. Ferrihydrite was the most effective PSM for orthophosphate removal with removal efficiencies of up to 34%. The 3 year trial indicated that more research is required to establish the wider validity of FS as a mitigation measure. This needs to encompass extensive field trials, incorporating their efficacy in other cropping situations with different soil types, slopes and climate conditions (e.g. annual rainfall). The research showed that PSM-amended FS are efficient at concurrently removing sediment, sediment-bound phosphate, and orthophosphate from runoff in laboratory studies, and are efficient under a range of laboratory based rainfall events. However this needs to be verified in field conditions to ensure that they remain a viable mitigation option for the future. Furthermore, research needs to be undertaken into the longevity of the materials for sediment and orthophosphate control in field conditions.

The mitigation of diffuse sediment pollution requires reliable provenance information so that measures can be targeted. Sediment source fingerprinting represents one approach for supporting these needs, but recent methodological developments have resulted in an increasing complexity of data processing methods rendering the approach less accessible to non-specialists. A comprehensive new software programme (SIFT; SedIment Fingerprinting Tool) has therefore been developed which guides the user through critical data analysis decisions and automates all calculations. Multiple source group configurations and composite fingerprints are identified and tested using multiple methods of uncertainty analysis. This aims to explore the sediment provenance information provided by the tracers more comprehensively than a single model, and allows for model configurations with high uncertainties to be rejected. This paper provides an overview of its application to an agricultural catchment in the UK to determine if the approach used can provide a reduction in uncertainty and increase in precision. Five source group classifications were used; three formed using a k-means cluster analysis containing 2, 3 and 4 clusters, and two a-priori groups based upon catchment geology. Three different composite fingerprints were used for each classification and bi-plots, range tests, tracer variability ratios and virtual mixtures tested the reliability of each model configuration. Some model configurations performed poorly when apportioning the composition of virtual mixtures, and different model configurations could produce different sediment provenance results despite using composite fingerprints able to discriminate robustly between the source groups. Despite this uncertainty, dominant sediment sources were identified, and those in close proximity to each sediment sampling location were found to be of greatest importance. This new software, by integrating recent methodological developments in tracer data processing, guides users through key steps. Critically, by applying multiple model configurations and uncertainty assessment, it delivers more robust solutions for informing catchment management of the sediment problem than many previously used approaches., Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image, Highlights • Sediment source fingerprinting methods have become complex and inaccessible. • SIFT is comprehensive, user-friendly and free sediment fingerprinting software. • Multiple source group classifications and composite fingerprints are used. • Different methods of uncertainty analysis are used to validate each model. • Localised sources were identified to contribute to channel bed sedimentation.

The promise of integrated research for addressing complex problems of sustainability such as catchment management has been widely recognised. However, the mechanisms for achieving integration in research have been the subject of few empirical studies. A major challenge of doing integrated research is how to combine and effectively manage diverse disciplinary perspectives and other knowledge/s in the generation of new knowledge for practice and policy change. We examined this challenge within a large catchment management research project in Australia's Murray Darling Basin and asked, ‘What supports or enables integration in research?’ Addressing this question requires an attention to integration as a dynamic process of knowledge production. We propose a model of this dynamic process which is characterised by a changing demand for integration in five different phases: (1) establishing the imperative for integration; (2) coordinating different disciplinary and other knowledge commitments; (3) consolidating arrangements for integration; (4) prioritising outputs from integration; and, (5) representing outputs of integration. For researchers and research managers this model can help identify the mechanisms required to support effective integration within research projects. We identify these mechanisms as sites and devices for integration that must be both planned (as part of the original integrated research design) and emergent (iteratively created and supported) in research projects.

Water pollution and water scarcity are among the main environmental challenges faced by the European Union, and multiple stressors compromise the integrity of water resources and ecosystems. Particularly in lowland areas of northern Europe, high population density, flood protection and, especially, intensive agriculture, are important drivers of water quality degradation. In addition, future climate and land use changes may interact, with uncertain consequences for water resources. Modelling approaches have become essential to address water issues and to evaluate ecosystem management. In this work, three multi-stressor future storylines combining climatic and socio-economic changes, defined at European level, have been downscaled for the Odense Fjord catchment (Denmark), giving three scenarios: High-Tech agriculture (HT), Agriculture for Nature (AN) and Market-Driven agriculture (MD). The impacts of these scenarios on water discharge and inorganic and organic nutrient loads to the streams have been simulated using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The results revealed that the scenario-specific climate inputs were most important when simulating hydrology, increasing river discharge in the HT and MD scenarios (which followed the high emission 8.5 representative concentration pathway, RCP), while remaining stable in the AN scenario (RCP 4.5). Moreover, discharge was the main driver of changes in organic nutrients and inorganic phosphorus loads that consequently increased in a high emission scenario. Nevertheless, both land use (via inputs of fertilizer) and climate changes affected the nitrate transport. Different levels of fertilization yielded a decrease in the nitrate load in AN and an increase in MD. In HT, however, nitrate losses remained stable because the fertilization decrease was counteracted by a flow increase. Thus, our results suggest that N loads will ultimately depend on future land use and management in an interaction with climate changes, and this knowledge is of utmost importance for the achievement of European environmental policy goals.

The Merguellil catchment (central Tunisia) is a typical Mediterranean semi-arid basin, which suffers from regular water shortage aggravated by current droughts. Over recent decades, the continuous construction of small and large dams and soil and water conservation works (i.e. contour ridges) have taken place within this watershed. However, little is known about the effect of these water-harvesting systems on the water balance components of arid or semi-arid basins. In this paper, we present the results of a study, which evaluates the impact of the contour ridges on water balance components and erosion at basin scale by using the soil and water assessment tool model (SWAT). Large dams were modelled as reservoirs, small dams as ponds and contour ridges as potholes that fill with water and increase the percolation into the aquifer. The model predicts that contour ridges produce annually a reduction of 32 and 21% in surface run-off and river discharge, respectively, and an increase in aquifer recharge of 50%. At the same time, retention of a large proportion of entrained sediment (26%) was modelled.

This article offers an approach to the study of the evolution, spread and uptake of integrated water resources management (IWRM). Specifically, it looks at the flow of IWRM as an idea in international and national fora, its translation and adoption into national contexts, and the on-the-ground practices of IWRM. Research carried out in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique provides empirical insights into the politics of IWRM implementation in southern Africa, the interface between international and national interests in shaping water policies in specific country contexts, and the on-the-ground challenges of addressing equity, redress and the reallocation of water.

Driven by the pull of gravity, mass-wasting comprises all of the sedimentary processes related to remobilization of sediments deposited on slopes, including creep, sliding, slumping, flow, and fall. It is vital to conduct mass-wasting susceptibility mapping, with the aim of providing decision makers with management advice. The current study presents two individual data mining methods&mdash, the frequency ratio (FR) and information value model (IVM) methods&mdash, to map mass-wasting susceptibility in four catchments in Miyun County, Beijing, China. To achieve this goal, nine influence factors and a mass-wasting inventory map were used and produced, respectively. In this study, 71 mass-wasting locations were investigated in the field. Of these hazard locations, 70% of them were randomly selected to build the model, and the remaining 30% of the hazard locations were used for validation. Finally, a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the mass-wasting susceptibility maps produced by the above-mentioned models. Results show that the FR had a higher concordance and spatial differentiation, with respective values of 0.902 (area under the success rate) and 0.883 (area under the prediction rate), while the IVM had lower values of 0.865 (area under the success rate) and 0.855 (area under the prediction rate). Both proposed methodologies are useful for general planning and evaluation purposes, and they are shown to be reasonable models. Slopes of 6&ndash, 21&deg, were the most common thresholds that controlled occurrence of mass-wasting. Farmland terraces were mainly composed of gravel, mud, and clay, which are more prone to mass-wasting. Mass-wasting susceptibility mapping is feasible and potentially highly valuable. It could provide useful information in support of environmental health policies.

Flooding is one of the most significant issues facing the UK and Europe. New approaches are being sought to mitigate its impacts, and distributed, catchment-based techniques are becoming increasingly popular. These employ a range of measures, often working with the catchment’s natural processes, in order to improve flood resilience. There remains a lack of conclusive evidence, however, for the impacts of these approaches on the storm runoff, leading to considerable uncertainty in their effectiveness in terms of mitigating flood risk. A new modelling framework for design, assessment, and uncertainty estimation of such distributed, nature-based schemes is developed. An implementation of a semidistributed runoff model demonstrates robustness to spatio-temporal discretisation. Alongside a new hydraulic routing scheme, the model is used to evaluate the impacts on flood risk of in-channel measures applied within an 29 km2 agricultural catchment. Maximum additional channel storage of 70,000 m3 and a corresponding reduction of 11% in peak flows is seen. This, however, would not have been insufficient to prevent flooding in the event considered. Further modifications allow simulation of the impacts of wider measures employing natural processes. This is applied within an uncertainty estimation framework across the headwaters of three mixed-use catchments, ranging in size from 57 km2 to 200km2 , across a series of extreme storm events. A novel surface routing algorithm allows simulation of large arrays distributed features that intercept and store fast runoff. The effect of the measures can be seen across even the most extreme events, with a reduction of up to 15% in the largest peak, albeit that this large impact was associated with a low confidence level. The methodology can reflect the uncertainty in application of natural flood risk management with a poor or incomplete evidence base. The modelling results demonstrate the importance of antecedent conditions and of the timings and magnitudes of a series of storm events. The results shows the benefits of maximizing features’ storage utilisation by allowing a degree of “leakiness” to enable drain-down between storms. An unanticipated result was that some configurations of measures could synchronise previously asynchronous subcatchment flood waves and have a detrimental effect on the flood risk. The framework shows its utility in both modelling and evaluation of catchment-based flood risk management and in wider applications where computational efficiency and uncertainty estimation are important.

Accurately monitoring water levels at high special and temporal scale is the key element in every catchment or flood risk management system. Building, evaluating and testing hydrological models typically require years of high frequency datasets. Current water level monitoring systems are expensive and usually deployed sparsely throughout a catchment. This may not provide sufficient information to simulate the hydrological variations of a catchment. In this paper, we evaluate the Kingspan Sonic SignalMan ultra-sonic sensor that is designed for monitoring liquid, such as diesel, AdBlue, lubricants additives etc., level autonomously over years. The cost of this sensor is relatively low, which enables the deploying of a water level monitoring system at a much larger spatial scale at an affordable cost. A smart sensor network for catchment management is proposed based on the use of the Kingspan sensor.

The Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD) is widely accepted as the most substantial and ambitious piece of European environmental legislation to date. It has been referred to as a once in a generation opportunity to restore Europe's waters and a potential template for future environmental regulations. However, fifteen years since it was adopted, and with many problems and delays in its implementation, the WFD has not delivered its main objectives of non-deterioration of water status and the achievement of good status for all EU waters. Putting aside the daunting technical and organisational challenges of its implementation, this paper aims to shed light on why the great expectations that came with the WFD have not yet been fully realised. It reviews how the Directive has been interpreted, focusing on its intentions and how they were applied. The findings reveal the absence of the paradigm shift towards the systems (integrated) thinking that the WFD was grounded on, as a fundamental problem with its implementation. This is also evident in cases where the Directive has been criticised as a policy tool or when implementation efforts were reviewed, indicating misunderstandings even of its core principles. This inherent departure from the Directive's systemic intention and methodological approach needs further investigation, as it could be the reason behind many of its problems and delays. Unless current implementation efforts are reviewed or revised in light of this, enabling the paradigm shift required to ensure a more sustainable and holistic approach to water management, the fading aspirations of the initial great expectations that came with the Directive could disappear for good.

Water resource management is complex, and should ideally be a co-operative, stakeholder-driven problem-solving process. Bayesian networks (BNs) are one participatory tool being increasingly used to facilitate this process. The upper Mgeni catchment in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, is a key water resource area with looming water quality problems. The high number of stakeholders involved in a catchment management forum provided an environment for testing the development of a BN showing relationships between water quality problems and stakeholders in this area. Through engagement with stakeholders at quarterly meetings during 2011, and collation and analysis of water quality time-series, qualitative and quantitative data were successfully translated into a BN for water quality improvement in the study area. The model demonstrated that certain water quality variables (for example, compliance of wastewater treatment works; increase in housing developments) were more likely to be the cause of problems than others (such as discharges from farm dams or accidental spills). The value of involving stakeholders in a co-operative process is highlighted, and it is argued that the robustness of such a model would be enhanced further if applied within a formal participatory approach using conditional probability values endorsed by all stakeholders.Keywords: catchment management, land use, probability, stakeholder engagement, water quality

Scholars have tended to treat the European Union (EU) as an environmental 'leader'. Yet significant potential nonetheless exists for it to learn lessons in areas such as water policy where it has a long and successful history of involvement. The EU's Water Framework Directive (2000) imposes potentially far reaching requirements on its Member States to enhance public participation in the process of catchment management. However, to date, its implementation has been highly variable across and even within individual states. As the EU starts to revise the original Directive, thoughts will turn to how the current situation could be improved. One potentially productive avenue, which has not yet been fully explored, is to draw lessons on public participation from comparable multi-levelled governance contexts such as in the USA and Australia, where public engagement has arguably been more advanced. Drawing on theoretical accounts of the most likely facilitators and obstacles to lesson drawing, this paper assesses the scope for transfer. It finds that while the EU could potentially learn from these jurisdictions, there are likely to be significant obstacles in practice. These should be born in mind by would-be policy learners.

Harmful blooms of cyanobacteria (CyanoHABs) have increased globally and cyanotoxins associated with some CyanoHAB species pose serious health risks for animals and humans. CyanoHABs are sensitive to supply rates of both nitrogen and phosphorus, but sensitivity may vary among species (e.g., between diazotrophic and non-diazotrophic species) and a range of physiographic and environmental factors. A sustainable approach to manage CyanoHABs is therefore to limit the supply of nitrogen and phosphorus from catchments to receiving waters. Alternative approaches of within-lake treatment have increased risks and large capital and operational expenditure. The need to manage catchment nutrient loads will intensify with climate change, due to expected increases in nutrient remineralization rates, alteration in hydrological regimes, and increases in lake water temperature and density stratification. Many CyanoHAB species have physiological features that enable them to benefit from the effects of climate change, including positive buoyancy or buoyancy control, high replication rates at elevated water temperature, and nutrient uptake strategies adapted for the intermittency of nutrient supply with greater hydrological variability expected in the future. Greater attention needs to be focused on nonpoint sources of nutrients, including source control, particularly maintaining nitrogen and phosphorus in agricultural soils at or below agronomic optimum levels, and enhancing natural attenuation processes in water and solute transport pathways. Efforts to achieve effective catchment management and avert the dire ecological, human health and economic consequences of CyanoHABs must be intensified in an era of anthropogenically driven environmental change arising from increasing human population, climate change and agricultural intensification.

The Nile Story is one of immense challenges and remarkable achievements for the economic development of the region. It begins in 1999, when the ministers in charge of water affairs in the Nile countries agreed to form the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). Between 2003 and 2015, the Nile Basin Trust Fund (NBTF) supported and coordinated cooperative work in the region, which has been delivered mainly through the NBI. This book, commissioned by the World Bank on the closure of the NBTF, captures some insights to this 15 year story, the role of the NBI, and how its many achievements have been made along the way.

Agricultural diffuse water pollution remains a notable global pressure on water quality, posing risks to aquatic ecosystems, human health and water resources and as a result legislation has been introduced in many parts of the world to protect water bodies. Due to their efficiency and cost-effectiveness, water quality models have been increasingly applied to catchments as Decision Support Tools (DSTs) to identify mitigation options that can be introduced to reduce agricultural diffuse water pollution and improve water quality. In this study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was applied to the River Wensum catchment in eastern England with the aim of quantifying the long-term impacts of potential changes to agricultural management practices on river water quality. Calibration and validation were successfully performed at a daily time-step against observations of discharge, nitrate and total phosphorus obtained from high-frequency water quality monitoring within the Blackwater sub-catchment, covering an area of 19.6 km2. A variety of mitigation options were identified and modelled, both singly and in combination, and their long-term effects on nitrate and total phosphorus losses were quantified together with the 95% uncertainty range of model predictions. Results showed that introducing a red clover cover crop to the crop rotation scheme applied within the catchment reduced nitrate losses by 19.6%. Buffer strips of 2 m and 6 m width represented the most effective options to reduce total phosphorus losses, achieving reductions of 12.2% and 16.9%, respectively. This is one of the first studies to quantify the impacts of agricultural mitigation options on long-term water quality for nitrate and total phosphorus at a daily resolution, in addition to providing an estimate of the uncertainties of those impacts. The results highlighted the need to consider multiple pollutants, the degree of uncertainty associated with model predictions and the risk of unintended pollutant impacts when evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation options, and showed that high-frequency water quality datasets can be applied to robustly calibrate water quality models, creating DSTs that are more effective and reliable.

Water companies are continually adopting catchment management as a way of improving the quality of raw water prior to treatment. The catchments from which raw water is abstracted are often heterogeneous which regularly presents multiple pollutant issues and variability in the spatial distribution of pollutant-contributing areas. For catchment management to be effective, it is crucial that water companies select and target appropriate interventions at multi-pollutant high risk areas. Within this thesis a conceptual framework is developed to disaggregate and compare multiple pollutant risks in drinking water catchments to aid water companies in this decision making process. A review of pollutant processes highlights links between pollutants often mitigated using catchment management and therefore confirms the feasibility for a multi- pollutant framework. Criteria were developed with water industry catchment management professionals to determine framework requirements. No current framework or model fully meets these criteria. ...[cont.]

International audience; Lake Alaotra is the largest lake in Madagascar (456 km2). It is surrounded by marshland and irrigated perimeters of great economic value forming the “main rice granary” of the country. The basin also has an heritage and ecological value as a wetland protected by the Ramsar Convention (1971) and is home to a number of threatened endemic species. In reality the “lake” is just a vast shallow pool that seems doomed to silt up as the surrounding basin is affected by very strong erosion, the marks of which can be seen in the landscape («lavaka» or «tevana»). If Lake Alaotra is a transitional form destined to disappear, the question remains of how fast this will happen. In spite of repeated cries of alarm in the Malagasy media and also a few scientific affirmations, the silting up of the lake is not obvious. In a first approach, a critical analysis of arguments backing the hypothesis of rapid sedimentation in the lake is addressed. Subsequently, new data collected highlight the processes that effectively limit sedimentation, ranked from upstream to downstream these are: sand deposits by the overflows into the lacustrine plain, buffering by the aquatic vegetation in the marshes, resuspension of fine particles by wind and waves and their discharge related to currents and a probable subsidence. Significant sedimentation in the lake itself has not been shown, quite the opposite. Finally, local planning options are discussed. Priority must be given to improved land management in the catchment which affects both the large rice perimeters and the lake itself.; Le lac Alaotra est le plus grand lac de Madagascar (456 km2 à la cote moyenne de 751,20 m). Il est entouré de marécages et de périmètres irrigués de grande valeur économique formant le principal « grenier à riz » du pays. Cette cuvette a dans le même temps une valeur patrimoniale, écologique, puisqu’elle constitue une zone humide protégée par la convention de Ramsar (1971), abritant un certain nombre d’espèces endémiques menacées. En réalité le « lac » n’est qu’un vaste plan d’eau peu profond qui semble condamné à une disparition par sédimentation. Le bassin environnant est en effet affecté par une érosion très forte, dont les marques (« lavaka » ou « evana ») peuvent être facilement repérées dans le paysage. Si le lac Alaotra est une forme transitoire destinée à disparaître, la question demeure quant à la vitesse du phénomène. Malgré les cris d’alarme répétés dans les médias malgaches et aussi quelques affirmations scientifiques, l’envasement du lac n’est pas évident. Dans une première approche, une analyse critique des arguments soutenant l’hypothèse d’une sédimentation rapide dans le lac est établie. Dans un second temps, des données nouvellement collectées mettent en lumière les processus limitant effectivement la sédimentation. De l’amont vers l’aval, ce sont les débordements dans la plaine lacustre lors des crues accompagnées d’épandages sableux, l’effet d’écran protecteur joué par la végétation aquatique (« zetra ») dans les marais, la remise en suspension des particules fines par le vent et les vagues lors des épisodes de type cyclonique et leur décharge à l’exutoire, enfin un phénomène de subsidence très probable. Contrairement à une idée reçue, une sédimentation significative dans le lac lui-même n’est donc pas démontrée. En conclusion, des options de planification locales sont discutées. La priorité doit être impérativement donnée à l’aménagement des amonts, dont la protection conditionne concomitamment celle des grands périmètres rizicoles ainsi que celle du lac lui-même.

This policy paper records the outcome of a strategic analysis of investment requirements in the water sector in Zimbabwe as of December 2013. The work, entitled Zimbabwe water sector investment analysis, was undertaken in close collaboration with senior officials in Zimbabwe as an exercise in determining where World Bank investments may be most effective in the future, and to assist the government of Zimbabwe to develop its own investment strategies. The analysis was framed around two key questions: (1) what immediate investments are required to ensure that water in sufficient quantity and at adequate quality will be available to underpin recovery? This is in order to ensure that water availability would not constitute a constraint to future growth and development; and (2) where in the water sector should the next dollar be best spent? This paper summarizes the context of the water sector in Zimbabwe at the time of the study and reflects the key elements of policy advice derived from the analysis. It is important to record and recognize the key elements of policy advice provided by the World Bank through the water sector investment analysis.

Since 1988, the UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research has been conducting research in a wide range of water topics including hydraulics, hydrology, coastal dynamics and wastewater with an emphasis on multi-disciplinary collaboration. This paper presents an overview of this research, both past and present, and provides an outlook to the future research directions of the Centre.