6. Conclusions and recommendations

6.1 Data availability

• The data availability of European river basins is generally much larger than the data reported to the Water and Information System for Europe (WISE). WISE will give access to data that are reported compulsory to document WFD compliance. However, much more data exist, and local water managers will usually rely on their own databases containing the full amount of existing and accessible data.
• There is a large diversity of data availability in river basins across Europe. For some data types like meteorological and river discharge data the data coverage only varies moderately among river basins. When it comes to data on surface water quality and biology and on groundwater quality there are, however, very large differences. This difference appears to a large extent to reflect the seriousness of the pressures (population density, pollution, etc.); however, the water management traditions and the socio-economic policy priorities may also be important factors.
• The level of complexity of modelling carried out in river basins appears in general to be proportional to the amount of data available. This may be because both the amount of data and the need for modelling to a large extent is driven by the level of pressure on the water resources, i.e. on the perceived water management problems. So maybe, at least in areas and domains with severe problems, the interaction between data and modelling is in fact larger than we think - even if it many times may not be explicitly recognised by all involved actors.
• Different levels of modelling complexity require different amounts of data, but it is not possible in general to answer the question on how much data is required for carrying out a modelling study. In general, it is always possible to establish and run a model. If primary data do not exist secondary data and transfer functions can be used. The relevant question, however, is if the model results with the given data availability can produce predictions that are sufficiently reliable to be of practical use. The question of data requirements is therefore linked to the accuracy requirements which again vary from case to case depending on the socio-economic context.
• The analysis of data requirements for modelling for supporting the WFD implementation should start early in the WFD process, namely in connection with design of the monitoring network. However, it is not possible to complete this analysis until after the stakeholders views to the programme of measures are known through the public participation. At that time it will in some cases be too late to start and to make use of additional data collection. Lack of adequate data for the first round of the WFD cycle in 2015 will therefore have to be taken into account during the next six-year WFD cycle.
• Analysis of Article 5 reports suggests that data availability in many cases may not be sufficient for all aspects of the coming WFD implementation. This implies that the level of modelling required to support the WFD implementation will be somewhat higher than what can be performed with the present data availability. So, although the present data availability appears to be adequate for some level of modelling, it may in many cases not be sufficient for the level of modelling required from a socio-economic (water management/WFD) point of view.

• More readily available data than presently reported to WISEI are required to enable pan- European scientifically based analyses of WFD related water resources issues. Much of this data exist locally and are used for analyses in the river basins.
• The analysis of data requirements for WFD implementation in a river basin must consider also the data needs for the modelling studies that are expected to be required to support the water resources management. This should be included already at the time of designing the monitoring network.

6.2 Data accessibility

• The principles for data access as outlined in the Aarhus convention and the EU follow-up initiatives such as INSPIRE and WISE are sound and aims at providing easy public access to data. Thus there is no doubt that there is an underlying trend towards easier access to data. In spite of this there are still large problems with data access in practise. Some of the key problems are related to:
  • Economical. For some data in some countries the costs are significant with the result that the data are used less than they would have been otherwise. This is for instance often the case for meteorological data and topographical data.
  • Political. Some times existing data are not openly available to all interested parties. This can for instance be the case for data collected by a stakeholder who does not want other organisations, with conflicting interests, to have access to the data.
  • Data formats. Some data are only available on paper, often the formats of different data types are very different and the level of their documentation so lacking that it provides practical constraints for the data use.
  • Transboundary co-operation. It is often difficult to get data from organisations in other countries (even within the same river basin) and these data are often not harmonised with respect to formats and documentation.
  • Fractionised databases. Data often exist in many databases with different data owners each having their own data formats and dissemination policies. This fractioning of data makes it difficult in practise to get an overview of the data availability and requires a lot of work for case specific data processing.
• When the new EU data initiatives INSPIRE and WISE are fully implemented in some years some of the above data accessibility problems will be solved, at least with respect to the data for which INSPIRE and WISE will provide access. However, many data that are used for water management at local and river basin scale will not be accessible through INSPIRE and WISE, which focus on data with some level of aggregation and on data legally required to document WFD compliance. The remaining data that are vital for detailed analysis, such as modelling, may still have some of the accessibility problems outlined above.

• Efforts should be made to ensure data accessibility in practice for all data required to do detailed analysis at local and river basin scale – also for data that are not reported to the INSPIRE and WISE web portals but are stored only in various national or regional databases.

6.3 Data quality - uncertainty

• In addition to the availability and the accessibility of the data, the quality of the data is crucial. If data are not trustworthy they are not useful. Understanding the uncertainty in environmental data and systems is essential for making robust and wise water management decisions.

• Data quality should be characterised in terms of uncertainty. This uncertainty information should be stored as part of the data documentation.

6.4 Data for research purposes

• Data requirement for research purposes vary tremendously depending on the objective of the research study. As the nature of research is to gain new knowledge, there will seldom be sufficient existing data on the particular research topic. If for instance the objective is to improve the understanding of flow and reactive transport processes at a certain scale in a given area then it will most often be required to design a dedicated field monitoring programme just for the research project. If, on the other hand the research is focussing on water management issues and decision making there will often be sufficient data on the hydrological system, but instead it may be required to collect information on e.g. stakeholder views and behaviour.
• Collection of existing data for research projects is often cumbersome and requires a lot of resources, because the data access is difficult with considerable practical and economical constraints.

• The research community should have easy access to datasets from representative river basins for conducting WFD related research studies. Data collected in selected EC funded research projects should be documented and uploaded to a pan-European database and afterwards be made available for future research projects.
• There is a need for the research community to have easy access to new data from experimental river basins with new sophisticated field equipment aimed at providing data that can enhance the understanding of the physical processes. An example of such data are those that will be provided through the new Hydrological Observatories that are planned to be established under FP7 through a 2008 call for proposals under the Capacities/Research Infrastructures programme.