Solway Tweed river basin characterisation

This is SEPA and Defra’s first report on the economics of water use for a cross border RBD. Over the next three years we will develop further our understanding of the issues and enhance the quality and robustness of the available information through co-ordinated work. This will inform our assessment of the significant Water Management Issues report in 2007.

This report has focused on the uses of water which have been identified as having an environmental impact. Of immediate concern will be to work with stakeholders to develop the means by which economic data can be used to determine the most cost effective combinations of measures in water bodies at risk.

One area which needs particular development is the provision of better estimates of benefits of water use as well as estimates of the values associated with leisure and recreational uses. In Scotland it is the intention to develop tests to identify where measures may be disproportionately expensive in time for the start of the Controlled Activities Regulations in April 2006. The Collaborative Research Programme will also be scoping the disproportionate cases over this period.

Over the period to 2010 there will be further work towards providing more information on the issues around recovery of costs of water services and providing a harmonised assessment for the entire RBD.

It is not intended to use any of the data contained in this report as the only means by which licensing decisions should be made. However, there is a strong desire to ensure that as the data quality improves it will become increasingly helpful in ensuring an acceptable balance between environmental protection and actions by water users.

As work is undertaken the results will be made available to stakeholders and interested parties via the SEPA and DEFRA web pages.

Collaborative Research Programme

A major area of future collaborative effort between SEPA and Defra will be participation in the Collaborative Research Programme on River Basin Management Planning Economics.

The CRP builds on the three scoping studies that Defra commissioned in 2003/04 on:

Each of these reports identified a list of actions. These actions have been prioritised, and the CRP is taking forward those that are most important for implementing the WFD.

The collaborative research programme identifies and justifies the need for research, outlines the key collaborative requirements and prioritises and schedules the research in the light of the time and likely resources available. A key feature of the process is the collaborative involvement of a wide range of stakeholders from the start.

The collaborative research programme has the following sequential tasks:

1. To set out an initial identification and illustration of the issues related to the economic analysis and its role in the decision-making for programmes of measures under the Water Framework Directive. (2004)

2. To determine how to assess costs and economic impacts for each of the main types of options affecting the major different sectors that will need to be appraised in River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) in an even handed manner. (2004-05)

3. To scope and characterise the potentially disproportionately costly cases in RBMPs and the main gaps in information to draw up an appropriate process for assessing them and making best use of original and existing work to fill these gaps. This will include exploring alternative assessment methods. (2005-06)

4. Focus group analyses to specify clearly environmental damages of concern in these cases. (2006)

5. Development, trial and refinement of guidance on benefits assessment for RBMPs. (2006-2008)

6. New studies to provide better assessments and related demand information of the major environmental benefits of RBMPs. (2006-2008)

A more detailed summary of the projects is available from the Defra website⁶⁵. Also important for future work will be improved integration of the Scottish and English data and information for the Solway Tweed river basin district.