6. REPORTING AT MS LEVEL: COMPETENT AUTHORITIES, RBDS AND SUB-UNITS (SCHEMA RBDSUCA)

The WFD defines the River Basin District (RBD) as ‘the area of land and sea, made up of one or more neighbouring river basins together with their associated groundwaters and coastal waters’. ‘A ‘river basin’ means the area of land from which all surface run-off flows through a sequence of streams, rivers and, possibly, lakes into the sea at a single river mouth, estuary or delta.’ One river basin, including all its tributaries, must not be divided between different RBDs. One RBD may, however, include several (sometimes smaller) river basins, and shall also include associated coastal waters and groundwaters (e.g. Bothnian Bay (SE) or Adour-Garonne (FR)).

The RBD is the main unit for management of river basins as specified in Article 3(1) for which Competent Authorities (in both national and international RBDs) need to be identified that will manage the administrative arrangements and apply the rules of the Directive (Article 3(2) and Article 3(3)) within the RBD. Through Article 3(4) and Article 3(5) there is a requirement to co-ordinate the actions (nationally and internationally) to achieve the Environmental Objectives established by the Directive (Article 4) through the planned PoMs.

This designation of RBDs is, therefore, one of the core aspects of the integrated river basin management approach setting out the geographical extent for the co-ordination of water resources. The principle of holistic water management at the catchment level, from source to sea and based on surface waters and associated groundwaters, rather than on administrative boundaries, is reflected in the requirement for RBD designation.

The WFD requires the designation of Competent Authorities (Article 3, Annex I) within each RBD including for the portion of any international RBD lying within their territory. Member States notified the European Commission of their Competent Authorities in 2004. In addition to name and geographical coverage, information was also provided on the legal and administrative responsibilities of each Competent Authority and of its role within each RBD. Where the Competent Authority acts as a co-ordinating body for other Competent Authorities, a list is required of these bodies together with a summary of the institutional relationships established to ensure co-ordination. The RBMPs should also include a list of Competent Authorities in accordance with Annex I (Annex VII.10).

Class CompetentAuthority

1. Please include here any comments which apply to all the schema elements in this Class.
2. In addition to those general schema element level comments, we welcome your views on: a) whether you think this Class can be simplified;  and b) whether you think the linkages with other reporting Classes or Schemas can be improved, and how;

euCACode - Required.

Unique EU code of the Competent Authority. Prefix the Competent Authority’s national, unique code with the Member State’s 2-alpha character ISO country code.

competentAuthorityName - Required.

Official name of the Competent Authority in English.

competentAuthorityNameNL - Required.

Official name of the Competent Authority in the Member State’s national language.

competentAuthorityNameNLLanguage - Required.(LanguageCode_Enum)

Language used for reporting the name of the Competent Authority in the Member State’s national language.       

linkToCompetentAuthority - Required.

Website address of the Competent Authority.

acronym - Optional.

Acronym of the Competent Authority (if applicable).

street - Optional.

Street address of the Competent Authority in English.

city - Optional.

City address of the Competent Authority in English.

cityNL - Optional.

City address of the Competent Authority in the Member State’s national language.

country - Optional.

Country address of the Competent Authority in English.

postcode - Optional.

Postcode address of the Competent Authority in English.

mainRole - Required.(Roles_Enum)

Identify the Competent Authority’s main role(s) in the implementation of the WFD in the RBD. More than one role can be selected from the enumeration list.

otherRole - : Optional.(Roles_Enum)

If relevant, identify the role(s) where the Competent Authority contributes or supports another Competent Authority in a particular role. 

Class RBD

1. Please include here any comments which apply to all the schema elements in this Class.
2. In addition to those general schema element level comments, we welcome your views on: a) whether you think this Class can be simplified;  and b) whether you think the linkages with other reporting Classes or Schemas can be improved, and how;

euRBDCode - Required.

Unique EU code of the River Basin District. Prefix the RBD’s national, unique code with the Member State’s 2-alpha character ISO country code.

rbdName - Required.

Readily understandable name of the RBD in English that is meaningful outside of the RBD or Member State. 

rbdArea - Required.

Area of the RBD in km² including coastal waters but excluding territorial waters as required for the chemical status under WFD Article 2(1).

rbdAreaExclCW - Required.

Area of the RBD in km² excluding coastal waters and territorial waters. 

internationalRBD - Required.(YesNoCode_Enum)

Indicate whether the RBD is part of an international RBD. 

internationalRBDName - Conditional.

Report the name of the international RBD in English of which this RBD is a part.

primeCompetentAuthority - Required.

Report the euCACode of the RBD’s Prime Competent Authority.

otherCompetentAuthority - Conditional.

If relevant, report the euCACode(s) of other Competent Authority(ies) in the RBD.

subUnitsDefined - Required.(YesNoCode_Enum)

Indicate whether the RBD has been divided into Sub-units.

Class: SubUnit

1. Please include here any comments which apply to all the schema elements in this Class.
2. In addition to those general schema element level comments, we welcome your views on: a) whether you think this Class can be simplified;  and b) whether you think the linkages with other reporting Classes or Schemas can be improved, and how;

euSubUnitCode - Required.

If the RBD has been divided into Sub-units, report the unique EU code of each Sub-unit. Prefix the Sub-unit’s national, unique code with the Member State’s 2-alpha character ISO country code.

subUnitName - Required.

Readily understandable name of the Sub-unit in English that is meaningful outside of the RBD or Member State.

subUnitArea - Required.

Area of the Sub-unit in km² including coastal waters.

subUnitAreaExclCW - Required.

Area of the Sub-unit in km² excluding coastal waters and territorial waters.

Guidance on the contents of the RBMPs/background documents

(Please see the full text of this sub-section in the WFD Reporting Guidance 2016 or above chapter)

Include here any comments that relate to the information contained in this sub-section of the Reporting Guidance, namely concerning information you think could/should be reported electronically and information which you believe should not be included in the River Basin Management Plans or background documents.