12th July 2018 Annex XIII Application of the bottom- up multicriteria methodology in eight European River Basin District The Tide-Elbe RBD Task A3 of the BLUE 2 project “Study on EU integrated policy assessment for the freshwater and marine environment, on the economic benefits of EU water policy and on the costs of its non- implementation” By: Bianca Baur Jochen Stroebel In collaboration with Disclaimer: The arguments expressed in this report are solely those of the authors, and do not reflect the opinion of any other party. The report should be cited as follows: Baur and Stroebel (2018). Annex XIII. Application of the bottom-up multicriteria methodology in eight European River Basin Districts – The Tide- Elbe RBD. Deliverable to Task A3 of the BLUE 2 project “Study on EU integrated policy assessment for the freshwater and marine environment, on the economic benefits of EU water policy and on the costs of its non- implementation”. Report to DG ENV. Client: Directorate-General for the Environment of the European Commission. It was not possible to apply the methodology to the Elbe RBD. The information that is currently available on the planned water measures in the RBD is not detailed enough to carry out the analysis. Annex XIII provide an overview of the available information from the RBD Ramboll Group A/S Hannemanns Allé 53 DK-2300 Copenhagen S Denmark Tel: +45 5161 1000 Fax: +45 5161 1001 Institute for European Environmental Policy London Office 11 Belgrave Road IEEP Offices, Floor 3 London, SW1V 1RB Tel: +44 (0) 20 7799 2244 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7799 2600 Brussels Office Rue Joseph II 36-38, 1000 Bruxelles Tel: +32 (0) 2738 7482 Fax: +32 (0) 2732 4004 Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. 3 Preface ............................................................................................................................. 5 1 Description of the Elbe River Basin District ................................................................ 6 2 The Second River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) and the related Programme of Measure (PoM) .............................................................................................................. 11 3 The measures included in the BAU level of effort .................................................... 15 4 Description of the measures included in the BAU level of effort ............................... 16 List of Tables Table 1 Land use in the River basin Elbe (CORINE Land Cover 2012) ........................................ 7 Table 2 Characterisation of the River Basin District Elbe (German Part) ................................. 9 Table 3 Most important measures and estimated related costs (FGG Elbe 2015) ................... 11 Table 4 Measures in RBD Elbe Schleswig-Holstein ............................................................... 12 Table 5 Measures in the BAU level of effort ........................................................................... 15 List of Figures Figure 1 Overview of the BLUE2 study ...................................................................................... 5 Figure 2 Number of measures related to surface water (FGG Elbe 2015) ................................ 8 Figure 3 Elbe River Basin District ........................................................................................... 10 Preface This annex report is one product of the “Study on European Union (EU) integrated policy assessment for the freshwater and marine environment, on the economic benefits of EU water policy and on the costs of its non-implementation” (BLUE2) commissioned by the European Commission (EC). The overall aim of the BLUE2 study is to support the Commission in building up its analytical capacity and understanding of the economics and effectiveness of the EU water acquis. BLUE2 is comprised of two parts, as shown in Figure 1: Figure 1 Overview of the BLUE2 study The overall objective of Part A of BLUE2 is to increase the understanding of the full (economic) value that water, and water services generate and how water resources contribute to economic development and citizens' well-being. The findings of BLUE2 will further assist in quantifying how the EU water acquis contributes to this value generation, using the most appropriate valuation techniques. The overall objective of Part B of BLUE2 is to develop a method for the integrated socio- economic assessment of policies affecting the quality of the freshwater and marine environment, to be applied in connection with the water and marine modelling framework held by the Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). The method and accompanying tools will be used to support policy development. In particular, Part B aims to establish an EU pressures inventory and measures database. Additionally, Part B will increase the understanding of the cost-effectiveness of measures and the benefits arising from a reduction of pressures on the freshwater and marine environment through the application of two online modelling tools. A Scenario Generation Tool for defining and generating policy scenarios for JRC modelling and an Evaluation Tool for cost-benefit assessment of the created scenarios. Task A3 of BLUE2 developed a bottom-up multicriteria methodology to compare costs and benefits of water policy at the River Basin District level. This annex summarises the results of the application of the methodology developed in Task A3 to the Tide-Elbe RBD. 1 Description of the Elbe River Basin District The River Basin Elbe is a mid-European major river. It rises in the Giant Mountains in Czech Republic, flows through Germany and ends into the North Sea. It is shared by a total of four countries, whereby 99% of the river basin is located in Germany (65.5%) and the Czech Republic (33.7%) and less than 1% is located in Austria (0.6%) and Poland (0.2%). The international River Basin Elbe covers a total surface of 148.268 km2 and is inhabited by about 25 million people. The Elbe River is divided into three sections (Upper, Middle and Lower Elbe). The total length of the river Elbe from the source up to its mouth in the North Sea amounts to 1.094,3 km and is divided between Germany (66.4%) and Czech Republic (33.6%). The River basin Elbe includes surface waters, groundwater bodies as well as transitional and coastal waters. Important tributaries of the Elbe (in hydrological order) are Vltava, Ohře, Schwarze Elster, Mulde, Saale and Havel. The main tributaries are the Vltava, the Saale and the Havel which occupy more than 51% of the river basins. Major lakes are Müritzsee, Schweriner See, Plauer See, Köpinsee and Schaalsee. To achieve the best possible management of the River Basin Elbe, the territory is divided into 10 coordination areas, which are specified among the hydrological boundaries: The Czech Republic has the primary responsibility for the following five coordination areas: Obere und Mittlere Elbe Obere Moldau (HVL) Berounka (BEL) Untere Moldau Eger und untere Elbe (KOR) Germany also has the primary responsibility for five coordination areas: Mulde - Elbe – Schwarze Elster (MES) Saale (SAL) Havel (HAV) Mittlere Elbe/Elde (MEL) Tidal Elbe (TEL). As shown in Table 1, in 2012 57.6% of the total catchment area was under agricultural use, forests covered 30.8% and 7.6% of the area were used for buildings (CORINE Land Cover 2012). 6 Table 1 Land use in the River basin Elbe (CORINE Land Cover 2012) Land Use Share [%] Densely built-up settlement area 1.2 Loosely built-up settlement area 6.4 Open areas without or very little vegetation 0.4 Arable land 39.7 Permanent crops 0.3 Grassland 17,6 Deciduous and mixed forests 8.7 Coniferous forests 22.1 Wetlands 0.2 Open water areas 1.4 Sea 2.0 River Basin Elbe – Germany In Germany the river Elbe has a length of 727 km and is divided into 2.779 water bodies (including tributaries). In addition to this there are 361 lakes, one water body is defined as transitional water, five water bodies are coastal waters. Of the total of 3.146 surface water bodies 825 are classified as “substantially changed” and 748 as “artificial”. The groundwater is divided into 228 waterbodies. The German area of the River Basin Elbe represents with approximately 18.5 Mio inhabitants a highly urbanized and industrial area. But it is also characterized by agricultural use. The waters are used by shipping, water extraction and leisure activities. Major Pressures With regard to the surface waters the major pressure are diffuse sources, which include in particular nutrients from agricultural use and higher contaminated old sediments prone to remobilisation. The second main pressure results from flow regulations and/or morphological changes followed by point sources. Water abstractions and other pressures are of minor importance. The major pressures for the chemical status of the groundwater are diffuse sources, in particular from agricultural activities. The quantitative status is mainly influenced by water abstractions. State of the surface waters Ecological status 95% of rivers and 80% of lakes do not achieve the objective of “good ecological status” due to the quality of macrophytes, makrozoobenthos and fish fauna. With reference to the lakes, the reason for the failure to achieve the objective is the quality of phytoplankton and/or macrophytes/phytobenthos. Chemical status None of the waterbodies has reached the objective of “good chemical status”, because of a general excess of mercury in biota. Equally responsible are aromatic