Water quality monitoring programs provide the fundamental data to evaluate the ADWIs. Therefore, the robustness and representativeness of state/impact indicators strongly depend on the water quality monitoring data.
Table 6.1: Overview of the monitoring programs in the Nitrates Directive in EU Member States participating in FAIRWAY (modification of Table 6 of Fraters et al. 2009)
| Country | Groundwater | Surface Water | ||||
| Starting year | Monitoring point | Sampling frequency | Starting year | Monitoring point | Sampling frequency | |
| Denmark | 1988(G1) 1989 (D2) |
2000 wells (G); 6400 wells (D) | 1 time per year – 1 time per 6 year (G); 1 time per 3-5 year (D) | 1989 | 231 sites (F3); 89 sites (L4); 96 sites (MC5) | 12-26 times per year (F); 1-20 times times per year (L); 3-26 times per year (MC) |
| France | 1992 | 2625 sites | 1 time per 4 years | 1992 | 1719 sites | 1 time per 4 years |
| Germany6 | 1992 | 172 sites | At least 1 time per year | 1984 | 152 sites (F); 10 sites (MC) | |
| 2016 | 700 sites with data available since 2008 | 256 sites (F) 68 sites (L) 14 (MC) | average: 4 times in winter | |||
| The Netherland | 1984 | 360 sites (G); 220 sites (D) | 1 time per year - 1 time per 4 year(G); 4 time per year (D) | 30 sites (F); 39 sites (MC) | 12-24 time per year | |
| UK-England | 1990 | 3700 sites | 4 time per year | 7000 sites | 12 time per year | |
| UK-Northern Ireland | 2000 | 85 sites | 4 time per year | 1970s | 683 sites | 12 time per year |
1Groundwater monitoring wells; 2Drinking water supply wells; 3Freshwater; 4Lakes; 5Marine and Coastal water; 6Osterburg and Wolter (2017); BMUB, BMEL (2017)
All the Member States of EU operate water quality monitoring programs to fulfil the national regulations and EU-level obligations. At the EU-level, there are four directives that define the monitoring and reporting requirements regarding drinking water quality and the impact of agriculture on it: Nitrate Directive (91/676/EEC), Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC), Groundwater Directive (2006/118/EC), and Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC). These directives provide the overall guidelines of monitoring protocols such as minimum sampling frequencies, monitoring parameters. All monitoring networks deliver data to European Environmental Agency (EEA), where the data are available on their website both as maps and in aggregated forms of numerous reports.
Each Member State uses its own monitoring program to comply with these directives (Table 6.1). Therefore, the monitoring programs of the EU Member States have very different structures and designs, depending on various factors such as their history, financial situations, national monitoring obligations and other societal needs. A comprehensive overview of different national monitoring strategies in connection with the Nitrates Directive can be found in Fraters et al. (2009). Table 6.1 shows a summary of the monitoring programs of the Member States participating in FAIRWAY.
In France, in the monitoring network, the frequency of analysis varies, depending on the parameters. For instance, in the Loire-Bretagne bassin, 52 parameters are analysed on a regular basis (2 times/year), 171 parameters are analysed only during “Photographic” analysis (1 time/cycle) and 63 parameters on a selection of points are analysed on intermediate analysis (once in the middle of the cycle). For a certain drinking water plant, the number of parameters could reach almost 700 parameters since there is no limit of pesticide that can be analysed.
In Germany, the monitoring framework for ground- and surface water had been adjusted in 2016 (Osterburg and Wolter (2017); BMUB, BMEL (2017).
In WP 3, we will compile all types of monitoring data for each case study site. The data availability and quality are expected to vary greatly; therefore, they may become one of the most important criteria in the prioritisation process.