Scientific and technical support to the groundwater legislative framework

The CIS Working Group on groundwater

EU Member States, Norway and the European Commission have jointly developed a common strategy for supporting the implementation of Directive 2000/60/EC. This directive establishes a framework for EU action in the field of water policy (hereafter referred to as the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) for the Water Framework Directive (WFD)) . The main aim of this strategy is to ensure the coherent and harmonious implementation of the directive. The objective of the strategy is to clarify a number of methodological questions related to reaching a common understanding of the technical and scientific implications of the Water Framework Directive.

Within this framework a technical Working Group on Groundwater was established. The aim of the group is to exchange information and experiences on groundwater issues as they related to the WFD (e.g. characterisation, risk assessment, monitoring, chemical status and trends, programmes of measures, etc.). The members of the working group share information and experiences via different means such as workshops, technical reports and guidance documents which gather participants’ experiences. The second phase of the working group (2004-2006) was successful and resulted in the publication of three technical reports (see links below). The Working Group on Groundwater is now entering its third period (2007-2009). The aim is to focus on implementing the new Groundwater Directive and the groundwater elements of the WFD, in particular the monitoring and preparation of the first River Basin Management Plan.

Key events

• 13-15/11/2008:
  European Groundwater Conference 2008, Paris, France
• 17-21/9/2007:
  http://iah-2007.com, 25th IAH Congress on Groundwater and Ecosystems, Lisbon, Portugal
• 22-23/6/2006:
  Austrian Presidency conference on Groundwater, Vienna, Austria

Documents

• Guidance document on Groundwater Status and Trend Assessment (pdf ~2,3MB)
• Guidance document on Direct and indirect inputs in the light of the Directive 2006/118/EC (pdf ~2MB)
• Guidance document on Groundwater in Drinking Water Protected Areas (pdf ~2,7MB)
• Guidance document on Groundwater Monitoring (pdf ~1,7MB)
• Technical report on Groundwater Trends (pdf ~1,7MB)
• Technical report on Groundwater Characterisation (pdf ~1,65MB)
• Technical report on Groundwater Risk Assessment (pdf ~2MB)
• Technical report on Groundwater Monitoring (pdf ~3MB)