RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT PLANNING (RBMP) FRAMEWORK
Management of our water environment is based on natural river basins, including areas of land from which water flows towards the sea and enters it at a single point. Sometimes known as catchments, these river basins are the building blocks of the WFD, and are managed individually or combined together with other catchments. The river basin approach takes into account that an activity upstream in a basin might have an effect further downstream in other water bodies including groundwater, and allows us to manage such effects.
Scotland's water environment compares favourably with other European countries, but 50 per cent of Scotland's water bodies do not currently meet the WFD "good status"' environmental objective. Environmental improvements need to be balanced against sustainable water use, and this will be addressed by the RBMP framework through several work programmes:
Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) responsibilities
Under WEWS, SEPA is responsible for producing and implementing the RBMPs for the Scotland and the Solway Tweed River Basin Districts (RBDs) in co-ordination with a wide range of organisations with interests in the water environment. Many of these organisations are represented on the National Advisory Group and on the eight Area Advisory Groups. The RBMPs will build on the information and consultation responses received from previous documents prepared as part of the statutory RBMP process, in particular the Significant Water Management Issues (SWMI) document.
Environmental standards
Environmental standards define the range of environmental conditions that support healthy aquatic life in our water bodies. Standards are set for the concentration of pollutants, the level of flows in rivers, from lochs, and the physical structure of lochs, estuaries and coastal waters. The standards help to classify the current status of our water environment as high, good, moderate, poor, or bad, inform the setting of environmental objectives through the RBMP process, and support the development of measures to deliver those objectives. Scientifically robust standards are essential in setting authorisation conditions to limit the risk of deterioration of status, to make improvements, to protect the interests of other users, and to retain appropriate capacity for future sustainable development.
The Scottish Government published a policy statement covering an initial phase of standards, and establishing principles for SEPA's use of these standards in 2007. Directions were also issued to SEPA to formally adopt the standards in the Scotland RBD and the Solway Tweed RBD.
The Scottish Government is currently in the process of developing Directions for a second phase of such standards for issue shortly.
Classification and monitoring
SEPA's previous classification system and water quality reports concentrated on the effects of discharges and diffuse inputs of potential pollutants. Significant improvements have been made over the past few decades to improve the water quality where it has been affected by pollution - the water quality in 37 per cent of our rivers, 20 per cent of our estuaries, and 45 per cent of our coasts have improved through planning, investment in sewage treatement, and control of other sources of pollution.
SEPA designed a new risk based monitoring network in 2008 to meet the needs of the WFD.
The previous network of monitoring sites was revised using the environmental risk assessment in order to target monitoring efforts effectively. The monitoring results provide the baseline for the new classification scheme and will help prioritise the programme of measures set out in the RBMPs over 2020-2027. The classification system takes account of water abstractions, impoundments, engineering works, and invasive non-native species, all of which may impact ecological quality in ways not measured by previous classification schemes.
Under SEPA's responsibilities, water bodies are classed as:
- High/good - healthy ecology, only deviating slightly from natural conditions, supporting uses such as recreation, fishing, and drinking water supply.
- Moderate /poor/bad - ecology is adversely affected, with a reduced range of uses
The Scottish Government is currently in the process of developing Directions to SEPA on classification matters.
Objective-setting
The WFD specifies environmental objectives for surface waters and groundwater for Member states, but also makes provision for setting alternative objectives where appropriate. The objective setting provisions are designed to allow member states to strike an appropriate balance between protecting and improving the water environment and ensuring sustainable water use. This flexibility enables improvements to the water environment that are technically feasible and proportionate, and determines how and when such improvements can be made.
Scottish Ministers issued a policy statement, setting out their aims for objective setting within the RBMP process, and in March 2009 a guidance note to SEPA with particular emphasis on setting objectives to achieve good status for all Scotland's water bodies no later than 2027.