Modeling the reduction requirements for substance inputs in the catchment area to achieve good environmental status in accordance with the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive

Duration:
2025 - 2027

Financing:

Umweltbundesamt (Germany)

Contact Person:
Matthias Zessner

Project staff:
Meiqi Liu, Steffen Kittlaus, Ottavia Zoboli

Partner:

TU Wien is the leading partner 

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

HYDRON Ingenieurgesellschaft für Umwelt und Wassewirtschaft mbH

VisDat geodatentechnologie GmbH          

Brief information on the project

The aim of the project is to derive reduction requirements for phosphorus, nitrogen, and selected trace contaminants in the inland catchment areas so that the designated target values for the good status of marine waters (North Sea and Baltic Sea) can be achieved at the limnic-marine transfer point. This includes comparing the maximum permissible substance loads with the current loads transported into the seas via rivers and deriving the reduction requirements still needed inland. The relevant emission paths for the substances concerned are to be identified and reduction measures and their efficiency assessed.

The MoRE (Modeling of Regionalized Emissions) emission model will be used to implement the project. This model has been used throughout Germany for many years to balance emissions into water bodies (Umweltbundesamt, 2024a). MoRE can be used to identify the most important pathways for substance inputs into water bodies and to estimate the efficiency of mitigation measures. The model takes into account both diffuse emission pathways (atmospheric deposition on water surfaces, surface runoff, groundwater input, erosion, rainwater discharges, and combined sewer overflows in urban areas) and inputs from point sources (municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants).

Substance emissions and riverine loads in water bodies depend largely on events in the water balance, as hydrology controls the transport, transfer, and degradation processes. The basis for identifying these substance inputs is therefore a description of the water balance and the individual runoff components that is as realistic as possible. To achieve this for MoRE, the nationwide substance input modeling was linked to the LARSIM-ME (Large Area Runoff Simulation Model - Central Europe) water balance model of the Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG) (Umweltbundesamt, 2024b). LARSIM-ME will be used for nationwide substance input modeling in the future and will be provided as the basis for MoRE modeling for a period of 10 years as part of this project. In addition, erosion modeling for Germany was further developed in a research project and implemented for the nutrient phosphorus as an example (Umweltbundesamt, 2022). These developments will be used in this project and, by linking soil removal and sediment input calculations with MoRE's emission modeling, will be used to calculate erosion control measures and their effectiveness.

References:

Fuchs, S.; Kaiser, M.; Kiemle, L.; Kittlaus, S.; Rothvoß, S.; Toshovski, S.; Wagner, A.; Wander, R.; Weber, T.; Ziegler, S. (2017): Modeling of Regionalized Emissions (MoRE) into Water Bodies: An Open-Source River Basin Management System. Water 2017, 9, 239; doi:10.3390/w9040239.

Umweltbundesamt (2022) Phosphoreinträge in die Gewässer bundesweit modellieren; neue Ansätze und aktualisierte Ergebnisse von MoRE-DE; Autor:innen: Stephan Fuchs, Katharina Brecht, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) / Institut für Wasser und Gewässerentwicklung (IWG) / Fachbereich Siedlungswasserwirtschaft, Karlsruhe; Michael Gebel, Stephan Bürger, Mario Uhlig, Stefan Halbfaß, VisDat geodatentechnologie GmbH, Dresde; UBA TEXTE 142/2022 Ressortforschungsplan des Bundesministeriums für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz Forschungskennzahl 3718 72 211 0, Abschlussbericht.

Umweltbundesamt (2024a) Stoffeinträge in Gewässer, https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/wasser/fluesse/nutzung-belastungen/stoffeintraege-in-gewaesser#stoffeintrage-in-die-gewasser-notwendige-informationen-fur-die-politik, opens an external URL in a new window, abgerufen am 27.5.2024)

Umweltbundesamt (2024b) Zusammenführung der bundesweiten Modellierung von Wasserhaushalt (LARSIM-ME) und Stoffeinträgen (MoRE); Autor:innen: Karoline Morling, Stephan Fuchs, Julia Krumm, Ingo Haag; Texte | 37/2024; Forschungskennzahl 3717 22 223 0.