EO for Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive monitoring

EU Member States are responsible for implementing EU regulations such as the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSD). Finland has developed advanced EO-based (Copernicus Sentinels) water quality related tools and practices that serve directive implementation. The objectives of this activity are to:

• Demonstrate and further advance existing national downstream applications and services especially within the Baltic Sea area but also linked to other EU member states.
• Have active dialogue with actors in the Baltic Sea region about implementing EO tools for EU regulations.
• Give suggestions for revising the regulations so that EO-based information is accepted in the directives.

SYKE coordinates the national monitoring programme in Finland, where as the regional centres are responsible for carrying out or organizing the monitoring practices and laboratory analyses concerning their coastal and inland water areas. SYKE is responsible for the consistency and coherency of the national coastal and lakes water monitoring programme in Finland. SYKE actively co-operates with regional experts on topics related to planning and evaluating of the coastal and lakes monitoring programmes.

In this action SYKE will enhance the EO based MSD and WFD data and services and promote the wider usage of EO based information nationally and within EU member countries. During next autumn, SYKE will contribute to the national WFD reporting by providing EO-based statistics on water quality for Finnish lakes and coastal water bodies integrated as part of the national assessment tool. The impact of the services on directive monitoring will be assessed and documented through user feedback collected during the forthcoming assessment work (2019). The scope of the assessment work covers the applicability of EO data and services in directive reporting, level of integration of the EO services into the user systems, and requirements for the improvements for data and services. The results are presented in an impact assessment report as well as in national and international events with an aim to promote the advantages of using EO for directive monitoring. This work is especially directed to the working groups setting guidelines for implementing directive legislation such as Ecostat (intercalibration groups for WFD & MSD) and revision of WFD groups to which SYKE is already well linked. The Finnish coastal and lakes experts for the WFD implementation work will participate in this activity.

SYKE has developed a service for storing and distributing water quality statistics derived from EO observations and calculated for water bodies (the directive reporting units). This service will be integrated as part of national WFD assessment tool. Feedback about the use of the EO data is collected from the experts doing the directive monitoring and reporting during seminars and one-to-one meetings. The results are compiled into material which is presented in various national and international events. A final report summarizing the findings is compiled.