AIM
The ADAQUA project, aims at providing Cypriot stakeholders and end-users with novel practical environmental tools to support the prediction and management of river water pollution problems in Cyprus, through the ground-truthing and integration of appropriate newly-emerging ecological, microbiological and hydrological methods into an environmental and human health protection instrument.
OBJECTIVES
Adaqua makes a significant contribution to the sustainable management of water resources in Cyprus by helping to protect against further river water quality reduction. The project brings together an international multi-disciplinary team to provide for the two pilot watersheds-Limnatis and Garyllis:
· Ecological assessment that will focus on benthic macroinvertebrates communities and their response to various environmental stresses.
· Quantitative microbial source tracking (QMST) assessment to distinguish sources of faecal pollution in the pilot watersheds, again in response to environmental stresses.
· Pollution hazard map integrating the above approaches with land-use and hydrological information.
Ultimately, Adaqua will support Cypriot stakeholders, end-users and decision-makers to develop a sustainable River Basin Management Plan for the surface waters in Cyprus, as required under the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD). It will also provide a basis for more rational risk prediction, and a strategic response to climate change, agricultural and wastewater pollution issues. It will additionally inform the development of a ‘Drinking Water Safety Plan’ approach to the sustainable provision of clean drinking water in Cyprus in the twenty first century.
Specific scientific and technological objectives
1. Ecological assessments rank the watersheds according to benthic macroinvertebrate community composition, in comparison to reference conditions. An assessment of the habitats in and surrounding the water body is undertaken at each sampling point.
2. In order to identify the source of faecal pollution in the water bodies, the ‘phage-lysis’ method of quantitative microbial source tracking (QMST) is applied to the pilot watersheds. The microbiological expertise of the Cyprus State General Laboratory and the University of Brighton allows existing source-specific bacterial marker strains to be tested in the Cypriot watersheds, and new local source-specific markers to be developed. In addition, standard faecal indicator levels (Escherichia coli, intestinal enterococci and coliphages) and flow data are combined, in order to calculate faecal budgets in the watersheds.
3. An online hazard map of each pilot watershed will integrate the data sets delivered under objectives 1 and 2 above. This novel approach to river basin management will provide valuable information to Cypriot end-users.
METHODOLOGY AND MAIN IMPLEMENTATION ACTIVITIES
A desk-based literature review during the first 12 months of the project will inform a 19 month programme of ecological biomonitoring and microbial source tracking within Limnatis and Garyllis watersheds. This will be followed by data analysis, and the preparation of hazard maps that will form a platform from which to assess the impact of future land-use, hydro-morphological parameters and climate change on river water quality. Activities will be supported by a programme of staff training and dissemination actions.
ANTICIPATED RESULTS
1. A literature review on river pollution control issues in Cyprus and nearby islands.
2. Watershed hazard maps in GIS (Geographical Information System) format.
3. An project website.
4. Dissemination of project outcomes and findings through presentation at international conferences, publication in international research journals, an Adaqua Dissemination Event and river basin management teaching packages for schoolchildren and university students.
ANTICIPATED BENEFIT
Adaqua project outcomes will support Cyprus’ eventual attainment of the EU WFD target of ‘good ecological status’ for its surface waters, and will provide a framework for the future application of Drinking Water Safety Plans in appropriate Cypriot watersheds.
WORK PACKAGES
Work Package 1- Project Management
A primary objective of Adaqua is to ensure sound management strategies and adequate internal and external communication mechanisms, to ensure the effective delivery of all Adaqua outcomes, and their appropriate dissemination to end-users and stakeholders in Cyprus and abroad. A successfully completed project and the wide dissemination of its outcomes will ensure that Adaqua makes a significant and sustainable contribution to the Cypriot River Basin Management Plan and future national river basin management strategies.
Work Package 2- Dissemination of Results
Effective knowledge transfer is key to the success of Adaqua. The Project Exploitation Strategy will set out how effective and transparent communication of the project outcomes to all relevant stakeholders and end-users will be achieved, both during the project timescale and following its completion. The project partners are keen to engage in innovative science communication initiatives, so through a seminar designed and implemented by the Cyprus Environmental Studies Centre, Adaqua activities and outcomes will support a variety of stimulating learning activities for students, that will ensure the project legacy in future years.
Work Package 3- Literature Review on River Water Management in Cyprus
Key to the development of an effective future Cypriot River Basin Management Plan, in accordance with the demands of the EU Water Framework Directive, is a better understanding of what has been achieved to date in the field of Cypriot river water quality management. An initial objective of the Adaqua project will therefore be the publication of a comprehensive literature review of the island’s river water quality management, the achievements of previous strategies and policies, and the nature of specific knowledge gaps that currently act as barriers to a better understanding of Cypriot river water quality dynamics.
Work Package 4 – Targeted river catchment sampling programme and laboratory analyses
The primary objective of this work package is to collect safely representative river water samples from selected sites along the catchments of the Limnatis and Garyllis rivers in Limassol district, perform and record the results of ecological and microbiological analyses.
The ecological sampling will target benthic macroinvertebrate communities at 15 stream sites representing the two watersheds. Zoobenthos sampling and analysis will examine community composition and relative abundance, ranking and grouping sites according to macroinvertebrate metrics. The microbiological analysis will aim to distinguish potential sources of faecal pollution using the ‘phage-lysis’ method of quantitative microbial source tracking (QMST). All activities in this work package will be fully supported by the transfer of expertise among Adaqua partners.
Sampling will take place over two consecutive years (19 months in total) at selected sites providing a representative picture of the ecological and bacteriological status of the two watersheds. Benthic macroinvertebrates samples will be taken at monthly intervals, whereas the sampling frequency for physicochemical parameters and microbiological indicators will be every two weeks for each river watershed.
Work Package 5 – Data analysis and interpretation
The primary objective of this work package is to test statistically for relationships between dependent variables (macroinvertebrate communities, bacteriological and virological data, including quantitative microbial source tracking data) and independent environmental variables such as land use, hydromorphological and physicochemical parameters. Statistical tools will be used to draw out patterns and interrelationships within multivariate data, with a view to elucidating suitable combinations of variables to assess both current quality and future hazard risk indicators.
Work Package 6 – Development of Watershed Hazard Maps
Adaqua is innovative in the way in which it intends to integrate, ecological, hydrological and microbiological data to produce a risk assessment tool that will help to control river pollution at source, and encourage preventative action against future risks to river ecology and human health. The data resulting from WPs 4 and 5 will have a large spatial component, and therefore, in order to produce an effective and sustainable risk management tool, PC-based Geographical Information System will be used to develop a risk assessment methodology to assess existing and future watershed pollution problems. The assessment will be supported by the transfer of expertise scheme implemented in Adaqua.
The resulting Watershed Hazard Maps (WHM) will portray the existing impact of point and non-point pollution discharges that may require immediate mitigation measures, and provide a framework for an early-warning system to target and minimize the impact of future water pollution dynamics. The principle that underpins this work package is that the outcomes must be transferrable to other watersheds of Cyprus, in order to evaluate key unknowns, which currently prevent compliance with the Water Framework Directive.
