WEISS

A tool to build an inventory of emissions towards surface waters

WEISS supports competent authorities across Europe with the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). These authorities need this new tool for two reasons: - firstly to determine the significant emission sources and their contribution to the pollution of water bodies in order to formulate mitigation measures, and -secondly, to control and monitor compliance with the objectives to stop (or gradually terminate) and decrease pollution as defined in article 4, part 1, under (a), point IV of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC).

The main aim propelling the elaboration of an innovative Water Emissions Inventory Planning Support System (WEISS) is to support competent authorities with the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). More precisely the objective is to develop an instrument for the identification of objectives and measures to reach the good water quality status and for the collection of the required information. The target region will be well equipped to determine the significant emission sources and their contribution to the pollution of water bodies in order to formulate mitigation measures, and secondly, to control and monitor compliance with the objectives to stop (or gradually terminate) and decrease pollution. The WEISS system will contribute in furthering the knowledge in the EU Member States with regards to methodologies and techniques enabling the accurate estimation (and reporting) of sources of emissions and their contributions to the pollution of the surface waters. WEISS is a LIFE+ project that will create a geographically explicit, transparent inventory of emissions towards water for the Flemish region. The WEISS system will integrate all relevant emission sources (both diffuse and point), all transport routes, and a planning support module. This will enable calculation of pollutant loads in distinctive nodes of the pathways, as required for monitoring and reporting (e.g. WFD, E-PRTR, WISE). The Water Emissions Inventory is a planning Support System aimed at reducing the pollution of water bodies.

The prototype for the Flanders region of Belgium is under development. At the end of the year, a tool will be available for use in any region.

None of the existing systems or tools addresses the problem at the same level of spatial detail, completeness of the sources, and representation and quantification of the pathways from the sources to the receiving water bodies. The WEISS is an innovative tool in the sense that it takes current best practices to a higher level. It will thus be of particular interest to sister environmental agencies across Europe.

The output is the ownership of the project partners. The documentation is available for free in the website and the WEISS.exe can be used for free. The software can not be modified without prior consent of the owners.

WEISS will be downloadable as an exe file. This empty system can be used in any region.

The authorities responsible for the water quality in the river basin districts, Research team.

Test on non urban areas to assess if further algorithms are necessary to take into account specificities a.o. of agricultural emissions. Test on regions with less detailed data with the aim to develop appropriate algorithms

Mainly data collection. But this could be building a consortium to develop a European project to further test and improve the tool in another context: can give the opportunity to develop specific local cases on emissions not yet included in the tool, e.a. rural areas, harbours.

Could be envisaged that VITO offers technical assistance to adapt and implement WEISS in another institution on a commercial basis

Costs for new data collection and validation: run the algorithms and assess the quality of the output (correct order of magnitude, correct pathways, comparison with measured data, etc.).

Costs for new data collection and validation: run the algorithms and assess the quality of the output (correct order of magnitude, correct pathways, comparison with measured data, etc.).