Riverine and atmospheric inputs discussed in Gothenburg

28 January 2020

Sweden hosted the OSPAR working group in riverine and atmospheric inputs (INPUT), at the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Agency in historic Gothenburg.

Lars Sonesten (Sweden) chaired a busy few days. Lars is also the Chair of HELCOM’s Working Group on reduction of Pressures from the Baltic sea Catchment area, and OSPAR benefits from the exchange of knowledge and ideas between our two Regional Seas Conventions.

The INPUT group is supporting the eutrophication experts in their revision of the approach for assessing eutrophication status in the OSPAR maritime area, the “Common Procedure”. Information of the riverine and atmospheric inputs to the OSPAR maritime area underpins our understanding of eutrophication processes and is important to identifying what measures need to be taken. So, the meeting discussed data deliver and assessment for both the annual Comprehensive Atmospheric Monitoring Programme (CAMP) report and the Riverine Inputs and Discharges (RID) reports, ready for publication.

In parallel with all OSPAR’s expert groups and Committees, INPUT refined the text of the draft eutrophication and hazardous substances objectives that will form part of the ‘Clean Seas’ section of the Strategy. OSPAR’s new North-East Atlantic Environment Strategy 2020-2030 will be launched in July at a special Ministerial Meeting in Portugal.

OSPAR’s next Quality Status Report (QSR) will be published in 2023 and the experts took time to explore ways of improving the data coverage and analysis methodologies of CAMP and RID to plan for the best possible indicator and thematic assessments for the QSR. A big ‘thank you’ to Sweden for leading on these assessments.

You can find out more from the meeting report.

SwAM: https://www.havochvatten.se/en

Riverine inputs and direct discharges (RID): https://www.ospar.org/work-areas/hasec/chemicals/rid

Comprehensive atmospheric monitoring programme (CAMP): https://www.ospar.org/work-areas/hasec/chemicals/camp

OSPAR Ministerial Meeting 2020: https://www.ospar.org/ministerial

HELCOM Pressure working group: https://helcom.fi/helcom-at-work/groups/pressure/

INPUT summary record: https://www.ospar.org/meetings/archive/working-group-on-inputs-to-the-marine-environment-810