Groundwater-Dependent Wetlands in the UK and Ireland: Controls, Functioning and Assessing the Likelihood of Damage from Human Activities

Abstract

Under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) the requirement for 'good groundwater status' is dependent upon there being no 'significant damage' to groundwater-dependent terrestrial ecosystems, i.e. groundwater-dependent wetlands. An ecohydrogeological framework was developed to assess the risk of significant damage for groundwater-dependent terrestrial ecosystems in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The framework will be used by the competent authorities implementing the WFD as a decision support system to apply the WFD guidelines on a local to regional basis. The framework considers the variety of groundwater controls and pathways of different wetland types and allows a specific assessment to be made of the vulnerability of different wetland types to groundwater related risks. Seven distinct wetland types were identified and the potential pressures were evaluated. A GIS framework was developed in order to analyse the spatial coincidence of potential risks to each wetland type. The framework was tested for a trial dataset of 10 groundwater controlled wetland ecosystems in England and Wales in order to evaluate their current risk of damage.

Detecting groundwater discharge dynamics from point-to-catchment scale in a lowland stream: combining hydraulic and tracer methods

“…For instance, groundwater discharge to streams governs the transfer of solutes and nutrients between sub-surface and surface-water environments (Boulton et al, 2010;Dahl et al, 2007;Gooseff, 2010;Kasahara and Hill, 2008;Krause et al, 2008) and is also a key parameter in controlling stream biodiversity (Malcolm et al, 2003;Hayashi and Rosenberry, 2002). Zones of groundwater recharge and discharge are particularly important in lowland groundwaterdominated streams as many lowland areas are intensively used for agriculture, which significantly increases the risk of transport of nutrients and pollutants to streams with the po-J.…”

A Review of Modelling Tools for Implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in Handling Diffuse Water Pollution

“…The EU WFD sets a framework for comprehensive management of water resources in the European Community, within a common approach and with common objectives, principles and basic measures. The fundamental objectives of the Water Framework Directive are to maintain a -high status‖ of inland surface waters, estuarine and coastal waters and groundwater where it exists, prevent any deterioration in the existing status of waters and achieve at least a -good status‖ in relation to all waters by 2015 (Heinz et al, 2007;Krause et al, 2007). Member States will have to ensure that a coordinated approach for water management is adopted for the achievement of the objectives of the WFD and for implementation of acting programmes for the purposes (Borowski et al, 2007;De-Kok et al, 2009).…”

“…The serious problem for implementation of the EU WFD is lack of pragmatic methods and tools to fulfil new tasks from the EU WFD for most EU Member States (Mostert, 2003;Giupponi, 2005;Heinz et al, 2007). The scientific measures or tools that can actually be used or developed for implementation of the EU WFD, especially in handling DWP, are still largely unknown to the EU Member States (UK EA, 2005; Krause et al, 2007).…”

“…The good DWP models should consider these factors: weather-driven processes and meteorological conditions (e.g. precipitation, air temperature, solar radiation, and wind speed) obviously influencing the water quantity and quality; various diffuse source parameters including pesticides, nutrients, sediments from eroded or overgrazed lands, and microorganisms; complicated soil-water interfaces for water flow and solute fluxes considering natural and human activities (Krause et al, 2007;Collins and McGonigle, 2008). Human activities related to land uses, such as farming, urbanisation and waste water disposals can produce great impact on the status of waters by modifying soil property and structure, changing nutrient chemical process in soil and bringing in pollution loads.…”

Macronutrient status of UK groundwater: Nitrogen, phosphorus and organic carbon

“…Carbon cycling has been affected by agricultural practices (Bellamy et al, 2005) and, in semi-natural systems (Magnani et al, 2007), through changes in net primary productivity and carbon storage brought about by N deposition (Townsend et al, 1996;Waldrop et al, 2004). The groundwater pool is an important, albeit slowly changing, component of the cycles of N, P and C, and in turn impacts on receptors such as surface water (Holman et al, 2010;Holman et al, 2008b) and dependent wetlands (Krause et al, 2007).…”