Across Europe EU member states and local authorities are required to develop river basin water management plans. A key element of the basin plans is a programme of measures (POM) for each river basin district. The POM outlines the most cost effective management measures and their application to meet the objectives of good ecological status. The measures shall remedy conflicts between economic benefits from water use and associated pollution. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) states that POM must be implemented by 2012.
The local EPA representative (MC Nykøbing F.) is responsible for developing a basin water plan for the Susaa basin, Sealand, Denmark. The EPA experienced challenges in formulating consistent methodologies and tools to develop POM and associated basin plans.
To meet these challenges the EPA in partnership with DHI has developed a comprehensive Water Framework Directive (WFD) planning tool. This easy to use toolset allows users to pose questions and obtain answers to support in water management decision making.
The flexible web-based GIS WFD basin planning tool allows for easy and transparent evaluation of alternative basin management scenarios. The tool supports a basin wide analysis incorporating the effect of all local and specific measures. The analysis in turn provides the basis for assessment of the extent and feasibility of the overall basin plan.
It is easy to setup a scenario, all inputs and desired measures are entered directly on the map. Based on defined inputs the tool provides recommendations in terms of achievable improvements and the cost to achieve these. The system is ideally suited for stakeholder involvement and can with advantage be applied for “gaming” to simulate a large number of alternatives. Statistics help rank the scenarios enabling decision makers to focus on the top ranked alternatives. The preferred alternatives may subsequently be subject to more detailed analysis including additional data collection and detailed modelling.