With the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the European Union has established a legal framework for the protection of all aquatic ecological systems including groundwater. In this paper the economic impacts of the WFD for irrigated agriculture with regard to the reduction of water withdrawal permits and various scenarios are analyzed. The results show that decreasing water permits cause decreasi...

A new method for classifying soft-bottom zoobenthic assemblages along the Finnish coasts (northern Baltic Sea) is presented and tested against traditional physicochemical monitoring data in the complex Archipelago Sea. Although multivariate methods for assessing the state of the marine environment have become widely used, few numerical indices can operate over a wide salinity range. We compare ...

Increasing the proportion of renewable capacity in the national energy mix may give rise to a range of economic costs. This paper considers the nature of water use in hydroelectric generation in Scotland. Hydroelectric generation is currently the highest volumetric use of water in Scotland. After calculating this volume, the paper considers the nature of some of the non-priced costs associated ...

Abstract Realising the goals of European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive is difficult. The differentiation water policies according to local conditions enjoys increasing attention and may be necessary achieve good ecological status in all waters. This paper seeks explore what extent how quality determines degree coercion, i.e. which differentiated are voluntary or rather imposed upon polic...