Towards sustainable management of Mediterranean river basins: policy recommendations on management aspects of temporary streams

Abstract

In 2011, the European Council stressed the significance of water quality for sustainable development in Europe and emphasized the need for better integration of the water policy objectives into the Common Agriculture Policy Water Policy 15 (2013) 830-849 reform in rural areas. Since 2000, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) has required the EU Member States to target good ecological status for their water bodies. However, the implementation of the Directive for the numerous Mediterranean temporary streams has been delayed indicating the need for elaboration of the tools and methods that address the special characteristics of such water bodies. This requirement has been addressed by the recently completed MIRAGE project. In the context of the recent publication of the European Commission's Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Waters, the MIRAGE-proposed framework for the characterization of the ecohydrological dynamics and the systematic description of the measured impact for temporary rivers could bring considerable added value to the EU revision of all relevant water policies. The project recommends additions to WFD articles including an explicit definition of temporary rivers, adaptation of environmental objectives to their peculiarities and establishment of a proper method to determine the initial status and specific actions in River Basin Management Plans.

Non-perennial Mediterranean rivers in Europe: Status, pressures, and challenges for research and management

“…This must coincide with the development of modern planning instruments, more effective land use policies and the linking of the current Common Agricultural Policy to the Horizon 2020 strategy (Nikolaidis et al, 2013).…”

“…As a result of the inadequate involvement of EU-Med countries in the development of the EU's Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD), coupled with a general undervaluation of NPRS systems, the WFD does not specifically address NPRS (Nikolaidis et al, 2013). This gap created several issues related to their typology, to ecological assessment indices, as well as to minimum flow requirements and other protection measures to be incorporated in RBMPs.…”

“…In fact, though there were some recent initiatives to improve the effectiveness of ecological status assessment in NPRS (e.g. Prat et al, 2014;Cid et al, 2016), more efforts are required in order to allow application in ephemeral/episodic streams too (Argyroudi et al, 2009;Nikolaidis et al, 2013). Finally, data use on physico-chemical elements and related classification systems for NPRS has to be revised, since biogeochemical cycles may differ between NPRS and PRS, and organic matter dynamics may vary more distinctly in NPRS than in PRS (Datry et al, 2014a).…”

“…Historically, European Mediterranean (EU-Med) NPRS have been undervalued by both water managers and ecologists Nikolaidis et al, 2013), and they remain among the least studied freshwater ecosystems worldwide (Uys and O'Keeffe, 1997;Jacobson et al, 2004;Ryder and Boulton, 2005;TempQsim Consortium, 2006;Acuña et al, 2014;Datry et al, 2014a). This corresponds to the widespread societal view that, according to Sabater et al (2009) "People in arid and semi-arid regions have the least respect towards rivers, since the rivers are often dry or have catastrophic floods, and are therefore viewed more as a danger than as a natural resource to be preserved".…”

An eco-hydrological assessment method for temporary rivers. The Celone and Salsola rivers case study (SE, Italy)

“…Although temporary rivers are quite common in the Mediterranean region, the basic principle of the Water Framework Directive has been developed mostly for perennial rivers (Nikolaidis et al, 2013); whereas for temporary rivers the ecological status assessment is more difficult to define and management strategy to restore a good ecological status have to be quite specific. This has been recently pointed out by the EU "MIRAGE" Project 1 (EU Project 7FP ENV 2007).…”