Call 2016 Water Quality aims to facilitate and share new knowledge that will improve decision-making in terms of reducing the impacts from roads on European water bodies as much as possible, i.e. preserve, protect and improve water quality. The research will be linked to risk assessment and risk management in terms of when and how contaminated runoffs during building and operating the European road network should be treated.

With an overall budget of EUR 1.17 million, the programme focuses on three key challenges:

A: Risk assessment and risk management

B: Environmental impacts of de-icing chemicals

C: New and emerging chemicals, including micro-plastic

The Programme Executive Board (PEB) brings together representatives from Austria, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

The PEB has selected three projects which are all now underway.

An article on page 25-29 of this newsletter of the International Water Association, outlines the work of the three projects in this programme.

The projects are as follows:

PROPER – Road runoff pollution management and mitigation of environmental risks

The PROPER project focuses on risk management in partnership with stakeholders. The project is examining the following challenges:

• Predict road runoff pollution loadings and concentrations
• Assess the vulnerability of water bodies receiving road runoff
• Assess sustainable measures for road runoff treatment during road construction and operation

Project results:

• D1.1 Literature review on road runoff pollution on Europe
• D1.2 Critical review of the tools to predict road runoff
• D1.3 Road runoff monitoring data and representative sites
• D1.4 Assessment of tools to predict road runoff water quality
• D1.5 State of the art of models used for emission calculations and air quality assessment
• D2.1 A review of current knowledge on the vulnerability of European surface water and groundwater to road related pollution
• D2.2 Construction, operation and maintenance of roads – parameters to assess surface and ground water vulnerabilities
• D2.3 Evaluation of International, European and national legislative frameworks and approaches
• D2.4 An evaluation of real world vulnerability assessments of surface and ground water bodies
• D2.5 A user-friendly decision-support tool to assess receiving water vulnerability to highway traffic pollution
• D3.1 Literature review on blue-green treatment solutions
• D3.2 Sustainable assessment of measures and treatment systems for road runoffs – Survey of guidelines
• D3.4 Decision support system – user guide
• D3.5 Decision support system – technical manual
• D3.6 Application of decision support system to select case studies
• D4.1 Literature review on treatment of runoff
• D4.2 Guidelines for the treatment of highway construction runoff

LUNT – Research the impact of roads and traffic on water quality

The LUNT is focused on the environmental impact of de-icing chemicals. The project will:

• Review existing knowledge about applications of de-icing chemicals
• Develop a method to assess vulnerability of water bodies to de-icing chemicals
• Review treatment options and their capability to dilute/retard de-icing chemicals

Project results:

• D1.1 & D1.2 A review of applications of de-icing chemicals, representative for European countries
• D2.4 Annex B-Flowchart
• D2.5 Annex C
• D3.1 & D3.2 Available methods

MicropRoOf – Micropollutants in Road Run-Off water

This project is targeting the issue of microplastics and organic micropollutants. The project will:

• Review sources and concentrations
• Assess behaviour and pathways in the roadside environment
• Risk assessment in water bodies
• Best management practices for microplastics and organic micropollutants

Project results:

• D1.1 Review of literature on organic micropollutants, microplastics and associated substances in road run-off
• D1.2 Review of available measurements of organic micropollutants, microplastics and associated substances
• D1.3 Combined results from the reviews of literature and measurements
• D2.1 Pathways of organic micropollutants and microplastics in road borders
• D2.2 List of potential predicted environmental concentrations for microplastics and OMPs
• D3.1 Environmental risk assessment
• D4.1 Processes and unit operations for road runoff management
• D4.2 Efficiency of treatment systems
• D4.4 Decision support scheme based on the risk assessment and the treatment efficiencies
• D5.6 Final report – Sources, fate and treatment of microplastics and organic micropollutants from road transport
• D6.6 Measurements of organic micropollutants, microplastics and associated substances from road transport
• Reading Guide for the Microproof reports

Documents