Water quality and availability - Infopage
Pressures on water (quality and quantity) and CAP contribution to improved water management.
Background information
Farming activities, which occupy more than half of the EU territory, are one of the causes of pressures on water bodies, impacting on the health of water ecosystems. Certain agriculture and forest landscapes and management practices are of paramount importance to deliver benefits for water ecosystems. Addressing the pressures while maximising the beneficial effect of good agricultural land management will greatly contribute towards sustainable water management and sustainable agriculture in the EU.
The dashboard offers an overlook on the main results in terms of pressure which agriculture exerts on water bodies and at the same time it provides an understanding on the CAP instruments to assess the impact and to promote the preservation and the enhancement of ecosystems related to agriculture.
Irrigated area together with water abstraction in agriculture give an indication of the use of water for farming activity; the potential surplus of nitrogen and phosphorus in water, livestock density and nitrates levels measure the potential impact on the environment and diffuse pollution due to agriculture. These indicators are complemented by the information on the agricultural land under management contracts to improve water management that for few countries represented a priority in the last years through the specific measures provided by the Rural Development Plans.
Data on water quality and use are unfortunately lacking and poor as not all Member States are contributing to the data gathering on the specific indicators.
To know more on environmental challenges facing agriculture and rural areas, click here.
In case data are missing for some Member States, EU totals are calculated with the available information.
Map: Share of irrigated area in total UAA (% of total UAA)
Indicator(s) used in the graph:
Notes:
- UAA: Utilised agricultural area
Graph: Water abstraction (unit: 1000m3)
Indicator(s) used in the graph:
Notes:
- Accurate and complete data about water use in agriculture are notoriously difficult to get since many farmers use water from streams, wells and ponds.
Graph: Water quality: Nitrates in groundwater (% of monitoring sites)
Indicator(s) used in the graph:
Mapping with legend(s) in the graph:
Notes:
- Due to missing data from some individual Member States this site does not attempt to offer EU totals.
Graph: Share of agricultural land under contracts to improve water management
Water management, focus area 4B, rural development programmes.
Indicator(s) used in the graph:
Notes:
- The agricultural land under management contracts to improve water management (focus area 4B) is reported by Member States to the Commission in the Annual implementation reports (AIR) of Rural Development programmes. The denominator (total Utilised agricultural area) refers to the figure of the closest year in the Farm Structure Survey (Eurostat). It should be noted that a number of management commitments have multiple effects, which means the same area may count toward other focus areas and priorities, for example in relation to biodiversity and soil erosion.
Graph: Gross nutrient balance
Potential surplus of nitrogen on agricultural land (kg N/ha/year)
Indicator(s) used in the graph:
Notes:
- Notes: This indicator is the result of a four years average (for example, taking the 2016 value, it is the average of 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 values); flag "a" indicates that all four years are available, while flag "y" means that there is(are) missing year(s) within the four reference years and the average is therefore calculated on the available years only (as for the example above, if 2016 and 2015 values are missing, there will be the figure for 2016 as well, as it will be the 2 years average for 2013 and 2014)
MAP: Livestock density - Number of livestock units per ha of UAA (LSU/ha)
Indicator(s) used in the graph:
Mapping with legend(s) in the graph: