Page 34 - RIOB - La lettre du Réseau
Version HTML de base
INBO Newsletter n° 21 - April 2013
34
Europe
The ”Blueprint”
An action plan to safeguard Europe’s water resources
This plan to safeguard Europe’s water
resources was presented in November
2012 at the European Parliament, the
Council, the European Economic and
Social Committee and the Committee
of the Regions.
Launched by the European Commis-
sion early 2010, this draft
Blueprint
is
intended to give an EU policy response
to the challenges related to water
resources management with a long
term objective of ensuring that enough
good quality water is available for sus-
tainable and equitable use.
The time horizon of the
Blueprint
is
2020. Nevertheless, the analysis will
actually cover a period up to 2050.
It sets out key actions to be undertaken
by water managers and decision
makers to deal with problems facing
the aquatic environment: vulnerability
of water resources to face climate
variability, but also demographic
changes, evolution in land use and
socio-economy.
The
Blueprint
is not intended
to create a new regulatory ins-
trument, but to clarify institu-
tional aspects and cover the
shortcomings of the integration
of water policy with sectoral
policies (especially agricul-
ture).
It has three main objectives:
l
Improving implementation
of the European water
policy, making full use of
the opportunities provided
by current laws;
l
Integrating water into other
policies;
l
And, if necessary, filling
the gaps of the current policy
framework, particularly in relation
to the effectiveness of water and
adaptation to climate change.
The
Blueprint
is based on an assess-
ment of water resources management
in Europe:
the "fitness check"
that
reviews all European instruments rela-
ted to water policy (i.e. the Water Fra-
mework Directive, both associated
Directives on Priority Substances and
Groundwater, the Floods Directive, the
Directive on Nitrates and Waste Water
Treatment).
The "fitness check"
identifies any
deficiencies of these instruments, their
consistency and effectiveness, and
whether there are barriers to their
implementation or excessive adminis-
trative burdens.
The "fitness check"
thus leads to an
assessment of the functioning of water
policy at the European level.
An impact assessment will identify
different policy scenarios for guaran-
tying availability and use of water
resources and target indicators for the
protection of aquatic resources. It will
estimate the costs and impacts of
policy measures to manage demand,
increase freshwater availability and
protect ecosystems.
Finally, this plan should allow water
managers and political decision
makers defining key actions to improve
water resources governance: improve-
ment of land use, water pollution
control, more efficient use of water and
increase in its resilience.
European Union
DG Environment
Tel.: + 32 (0)2 299 11 11
A new international standard
for the exchange of information
on water
Since last September, the Open
Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has
adopted
the Water ML 2.0 Part 1
standard,
a coding standard for time
series in the water sector.
The International Office for Water,
INBO Secretariat, is one of 12 part-
ners involved in the development of
this standard.
The Hydrology Working Group is co-
chaired by the OGC and the World
Meteorological Organization.
The new OGC standard is based on
XML language for encoding and
exchanging data describing the
status and location of surface and
ground water resources.
European Union
Environment
A
Blueprint
to Safeguard Europe’s
Water Resources
Web Interface for access to measurements
of an hydrometric station
