Client: Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment – Water Development Department
Other Partners: WL|Delft Hydraulics (Netherlands) – ENVECO S.A. (Greece) – Ecologic (Belgium) – D. Argyropoulos (Greece) – Nikolaides & Associates (Cyprus)
The main objectives of the project were:
- The design of an integrated national monitoring programme for all water categories (rivers, lakes, coastal and groundwater) of Cyprus according to the provisions of Article 8 of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2000/60/EC
- The design of integrated databases and associated Geographical Information System (GIS) applications
The direct beneficiaries of the Project were the Water Development Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment (MANRE) as the Implementing Agency and the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research of MANRE and the State General Laboratory of the Ministry of Health as Co-operating Agencies.
The tasks that were successfully completed and the services that were provided were:
- Evaluation of existing situation and technical – institutional framework conditions
- Development of efficient and reliable monitoring programme that fulfilled the requirements of the WFD and preparation of Action Plan
- Standardisation of data collection and data recording procedures, improving data accessibility
- Development of environmental quality criteria for target chemicals
- Development of Integrated Databases and associated GIS system that are suitable to store, analyse and present the data collected
- Support in the implementation of the Monitoring Programme
- Capacity Building and Training Programme for the personnel of the Beneficiaries in order to monitor, analyse, store and present data
The monitoring plan and the relevant databases were designed based on the following principles:
- Compliant to the WFD 2000/60/EC requirements and to corresponding Guidance Documents
- Suitability to the characteristics and conditions of water bodies in Cyprus
- Consistency with the requirements of other relevant directives
- Adaptation to existing knowledge and experience
- Technical, economic and institutional feasibility
