Financing effect: The use of fiscal instruments exerts both a steering effect and a financing effect. The financing effect is derived from the use of funds generated e.g. from taxes. The financing effect pre-supposes that revenue from a tax is earmarked (cf. instrument VI, reorganisation of the equalisation tax under nature conservation law and the fishing charge).
Initial characterisation (also known as inventory): According to Article 5 of the Water Framework Directive, this entails an analysis of the characteristics of a river basin district, including a review of the environmental impacts of human activities and an economic analysis of water use. More precise specifications on inventories may be found in Appendices II and III, which also address the most cost-effective combinations of measures. The initial characterisation must be prepared by December 2004.
Instruments: These are designed to modify framework conditions, so as to indirectly influence the conduct of the relevant players. Instruments may alter the legal or financial framework conditions, but may also help to bring about behavioural changes by means of improved information and education. In this way, the instruments support the implementation / enforcement of measures. According to the nomenclature of the Water Framework Directive, instruments are classed as “supplementary measures” within the meaning of Annex VI, part B of the Water Framework Directive, although it has to be said that the Water Framework Directive likewise fails to make a clear distinction between measures and instruments.
Measures: Within the context of this Handbook, measures refer to intervention leading directly to an improvement in the water body status, by eliminating or ameliorating a pressure. This primarily, although not exclusively, concerns measures of a structural nature and measures performed directly on the water body. With the reduction / prevention of discharges, this comprises both end-of-the-pipe and integrated measures. Measures become effective in the short term within a limited area with a high degree of probability; as such, their effectiveness is comparatively easy to predict. A decision regarding the use of measures is generally taken locally by the competent water authorities.
Operational costs (also known as direct costs): Costs incurred directly for the performance of a measure or application of a instrument. As a general rule, these costs must be borne by the executing authority. These include, for example, the construction costs for structural measures, HR expenditure and administrative costs incurred to the authority as a result of the performance of a measure or instrument.
Opportunity costs: The opportunity costs of a measure refer to the lost value of the next-best alternative. For example, the opportunity costs of an investment project could be comprised of the interest that would have been earned, had the sum been invested in a high-interest account instead. Opportunity costs represent a component of capital costs.
Polluter category: For each of the selected à pressure categories, in addition to the respective à deficit parameters, it is also necessary to determine the relevant polluter categories. Polluters refer to any anthropogenic activities that impair the quality of a water body. Examples of polluter categories include sewage discharges, the abstraction of cooling water, and agricultural irrigation.
Pressure category: According to Annex II, No. 1.4 of the Water Framework Directive <WFD>, Member States are required to collate and maintain information on the type and magnitude of significant anthropogenic pressures (cf. also LAWA Arbeitshilfe, part 3, II./1.1.4). Within the context of this project, consideration was primarily given to the following pressure categories:
Point sources, diffuse sources, flow control, water abstractions and morphological changes.
Programme of measures: Article 11 of the Water Framework Directive requires the preparation of cost-effective programmes of measures at river basin district level in order to achieve the targets of the Water Framework Directive as outlined in Article 4. The programmes of measures must have been prepared by 2009, and the measures outlined must have been implemented by 2012. From 2015 onwards, regular reviews of the programmes of measures at six-yearly intervals are envisaged.
Public participation: According to Article 14 of the Water Framework Directive, the involvement of the general public is prescribed at various different points, including preparation of the management plan and the programme of measures. This is designed, firstly, to ensure that the local knowledge of the (expert) public is incorporated into the management plan, and secondly, to act as a control in order to verify the plausibility of the evaluation and the choice of measures. This is of particular significance when determining the economic costs, when weighing up various different decision-making parameters, and when coordinating with other planning instruments.
Resource costs: These measure the value of lost opportunities which are withheld from other users because a resource is being exploited to excess (i.e. above the rate of regeneration).
Within the context of the Water Framework Directive, the term refers primarily to groundwater: in such cases, for example, resource costs are incurred if the level of water abstraction increases
available to agriculture for irrigation purposes. From an economic viewpoint, therefore, resource costs are a form of à opportunity costs. For the user, furthermore, they represent a form of à external costs (cf. WATECO-Guidance).
River basin district: According to Article 3, paragraph (1) of the Water Framework Directive, an area of land or sea designated as a main unit for river basin management consisting of one or more adjacent river basins and the related groundwater and coastal water.
Steering effect: The use of fiscal instruments exerts both a steering effect and a financing effect. The steering effect lies in the fact that certain modes of behaviour or action alternatives are deliberately made more or less expensive by means of a tax or subsidy. This creates greater incentives to modify behaviour without making this behaviour compulsory.
Sub-basin: Within Germany, 10 river basin districts (Rhine, Weser, Danube etc.) have been designated principal units for the management of river basins. These are listed in Annex 1 to the Federal Water Act. In order to facilitate the preparation and coordination of the management plan, the programmes of measures and other work, the river basin districts are subdivided into smaller sections. These are known as sub-basins.
Water body: Within the meaning of the Water Framework Directive, a body of surface water means a discrete and significant element of surface water such as a lake, a reservoir, a stream, river or canal, part of a stream, water or canal, a transitional water or a stretch of coastal water.
A body of groundwater is defined as a distinct volume of groundwater within an aquifer or aquifers (Article 2 (10 and 12) of the Water Framework Directive). Article 4 of the Water Framework Directive stipulates that all bodies of surface water shall be protected, enhanced and restored with the aim of achieving good surface water status by 2015 at the latest.
Accordingly, the body of water is the unit to which evaluation and potential measures for the attainment of a good status must refer.
Water services: According to Article 2, point 38 of the Water Framework Directive, this refers to
“all services which provide, for households, public institutions or any economic activity:
abstraction, impoundment, storage, treatment and distribution of surface water or groundwater;
and waste-water collection and treatment facilities which subsequently discharge into surface water”.
Water uses: Apart from water services, water uses also comprise all other activities which may have a significant impact on water status as set out in Article 5 and Annex II of the Water Framework Directive, such as the expansion of a water body for shipping purposes.
A I: S M
D a t a S h e e t N o . 1 . 1
Pressure category according to the Water Framework Directive, Annex II: Point sources
Polluter category: Local authorities/households Þ Sewage treatment plants