THE WATER ENVIRONMENT (CONTROLLED ACTIVITIES) (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2005 – A PRACTICAL GUIDE
SEPA Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Version 2, March 2006 
(Posted 25 May 2006)

This guide provides practical and succinct advice on the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 – more commonly referred to as the Controlled Activities Regulations or CAR. The guide introduces the Regulations, provides advice on the activities controlled by them and outlines how specific activities are authorised by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The guide presents SEPA’s approach to enforcing a new set of regulations. This approach will evolve in light of experience of implementing CAR and the contents of this document will thus be subject to review.

The guide is available for download from the SEPA website:
(http://www.sepa.org.uk/pdf/wfd/regimes/car_practical_guide.pdf)

7UDM&4WSUD CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
(Posted 25 May 2006)

Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Urban Drainage Modelling and the 4th International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design, which took place in Melbourne, Australia, from 3 to 7 April 2006, is now available for purchase.

An order form can be downloaded from the Monash University website:
(http://iswr.eng.monash.edu.au/News/20060420b)

Selected papers from the conference will be produced in Water Science and Technology and a special edition of the Australian Journal of Water Resources.

‘LOW IMPACT OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE EUROPEAN WATER POLICY’
From: Science for Environmental Policy. DG Environment News Alert Service, Issue 27, 22 June 2006

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) recognises the importance of developing effective mechanisms to facilitate public and stakeholder participation in the river basin decision-making process, in order to increase transparency and compliance. However, the Directive does not provide guidelines for the river basin authorities on how to open the decision-making process to the different stakeholders. In order to fill this gap, which is of great importance for European water policy, the EU-funded research project ADVISOR1 was developed to provide an integrated and participatory project evaluation framework for a river basin context.

Source: Nuno Videira, Paula Antunes, Rui Santos, Gonçalo Lobo (2006) ‘Public and stakeholder participation in European water policy: a critical review of project evaluation processes’, European Environment 16 (1): 19-31.

Contact: nmvc@fct.unl.pt

For details see the News Alert Service:
(http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/newsalert/pdf/27na3.pdf)

‘MONITORING AND MODELLING THE IMPACTS OF GLOBAL CHANGE ON EUROPEAN FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS’
Edited by Andrew Wade

Science of The Total Environment, Volume 365, Issues 1-3, Page 1-274 (15 July 2006).

The articles are available online to subscribers at:
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=IssueURL&_tockey=%23TOC%235836%232006%
23996349998%23625813%23FLA%23&_auth=y&view=c&_acct=C000050221
&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=37e0e8851a4b7eab1f48ae9d52d59fa1)

‘SEWAGE-EFFLUENT PHOSPHORUS: A GREATER RISK TO RIVER EUTROPHICATION THAN AGRICULTURAL PHOSPHORUS?’
Helen P. Jarviea, Colin Neala and Paul J.A. Withersb

Science of The Total Environment, Volume 360, Issues 1-3 , 1 May 2006, Pages 246-253. Urban Environmental Research in the UK: The Urban Regeneration and the Environment (NERC URGENT) Programme and associated studies.

Phosphorus (P) concentrations from water quality monitoring at 54 UK river sites across seven major lowland catchment systems are examined in relation to eutrophication risk and to the relative importance of point and diffuse sources. The over-riding evidence indicates that point (effluent) rather than diffuse (agricultural) sources of phosphorus provide the most significant risk for river eutrophication, even in rural areas with high agricultural phosphorus losses.  The findings have important implications for targeting environmental management controls for phosphorus more efficiently, in relation to the European Union Water Framework Directive requirements to maintain/improve the ecological quality of impacted lowland rivers.

For the UK rivers examined during the study, the results demonstrate that an important starting point for reducing phosphorus concentrations to the levels approaching those required for ecological improvement is to obtain better control over point source inputs, particularly small point sources discharging to ecologically sensitive rural/agricultural tributaries. 

The article is available online to subscribers at:
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V78-4H9YC1K-2&_user=10&_handle=
V-WA-A-W-WZ-MsSAYZW-UUA-U-AACVYCYAWA-AACWVBYEWA-EYCEZAEZV-WZ-U&_fmt=summary&_coverDate
=05%2F01%2F2006&_rdoc=20&_orig=browse&_srch=%23toc%235836%232006%23996399998%23621517
!&_cdi=5836&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=
88e8948b8bac4e7d6884cfdc92eb01e5)