Using high-frequency water quality data to assess sampling strategies for the EU Water Framework Directive

Skeffington, R. A.; Halliday, S. J.; Wade, A. J.; Bowes, M. J.; Loewenthal, M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-2491-2015

Articles | Volume 19, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-2491-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

High resolution monitoring strategies for nutrients in groundwater...

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-2491-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 5

Research article

|

26 May 2015

Research article |

| 26 May 2015

Using high-frequency water quality data to assess sampling strategies for the EU Water Framework Directive

R. A. Skeffington, S. J. Halliday, A. J. Wade, M. J. Bowes, and M. Loewenthal

Download

Final revised paper (published on 26 May 2015)
Preprint (discussion started on 28 Jan 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

- Printer-friendly version

- Supplement

RC C267: 'Review of "Using high frequency water quality data to assess sampling strategies for the EU Water Framwork Directive", R. A. Skeffington, S. J. Halliday, A. J. Wade, M. J. Bowes, M. Loewenthal', Anonymous Referee #1, 23 Feb 2015
- AC C1181: 'Reply to Both Referees', Richard Skeffington, 21 Apr 2015
RC C757: 'Review of Skeffington et al: Using high frequency water quality data to assess sampling strategies for the EU Water Framework Directive', Anonymous Referee #2, 31 Mar 2015
- AC C1183: 'Response to Referee 2', Richard Skeffington, 21 Apr 2015

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish as is (08 May 2015) by Brian Kronvang

Short summary

The EU Water Framework Directive requires rivers to be of good chemical and ecological quality. Chemical quality is assessed by sampling and analysing the water. Normal sampling regimes might involve taking a sample monthly or weekly. This paper uses high-frequency data from rivers to assess how accurate these regimes are at assessing the true chemical quality. Weekly sampling was more accurate than monthly, but there were still large uncertainties. We suggest ways to improve sampling accuracy.