Policy advice for federal states: Implementation of Water Framework Directive
Germany still has problems to reach the EU quality standards for groundwater, surface waters and coastal waters due to excessive nutrient inputs. Just recently, the European Commission has taken the German government to the European Court of Justice for not having taken sufficient measures to effectively address nitrates pollution of groundwater and revise its relevant legislation to comply with the EU rules on nitrates.
The nutrient flux simulation models GROWA-DENUZ/WEKU-MePhos developed at IBG-3 are actually applied in third-party funded projects by 10 Federal German States and river basin commissions as well as in other EU member states (e.g. Slovenia) in order to support the EU-Water Framework implementation process, i.e. for
- Determining the actual N input into groundwater and surface waters
- Identifying actual "hot spot" areas of nutrient pollution
- Assessing the necessary N-reduction in agriculture to reach the EU quality standards
- Predicting the environmental impact of possible nutrient management measures
- Deriving efficient nutrient adaptation strategies on State level
The co-operation project GROWA+ NRW 2021 is a good example for IBG-3s’ policy advice on Federal State level.
Initiated by the Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Conservation and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKULNV), the project GROWA+ NRW 2021 brings IGB-3 (scientific co-ordination) in an unprecedented manner together with the Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries (Thünen Institute) and North Rhine-Westphalian stakeholders like the Chamber of Agriculture (LWK), the Geological Survey (GD) and the State Agency for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection (LANUV).
Additional information can be found here.