Water bodies (JCWP) - what they are and how to find yours
In documents and reports on water, the abbreviation JCWP keeps appearing. It is not a bureaucratic detail but the basic unit in which the Water Framework Directive requires water status to be assessed, objectives to be set and actions to be planned. Anyone wishing to understand status assessments - or to relate their own monitoring to them - should know what a JCWP is and how to find the one that concerns them.
What a JCWP is
A surface water body (JCWP) is a distinct, reasonably homogeneous fragment of water - e.g. a river reach, a lake, or transitional or coastal waters - treated as one whole for the purposes of assessment and management. The equivalent for groundwater is the JCWPd (groundwater body).
Each JCWP has its code, an assigned type (river, lake, transitional, coastal) and a category: natural, heavily modified or artificial (on this difference - in the article on ecological potential).
What this division is for
Thanks to it, assessment and protection are concrete and comparable:
- status (ecological and chemical) is assessed per JCWP,
- for each JCWP environmental objectives are set,
- actions are planned in the river basin management plans for river basin districts, updated in cycles.
In other words: when we say “this river has moderate ecological status”, behind it there is almost always a specific JCWP.
How to find your JCWP
- Maps and codes of JCWPs are made available by Wody Polskie and GIOŚ (including portals and map services); the Geoportal can also be useful.
- By entering the location of a watercourse or water body, you will read off the JCWP code, its type and category, and often also its status assessment and the objectives set.
This is a good starting point before you plan your own monitoring - you immediately know the context in which your results will sit.
In practice
It is best to relate your own measurements to the JCWP in which they sit - then they gain the context of official assessments and objectives. LimnoLog lets you organise the monitoring in a project (stations, sessions, indicators with guidelines), and you can record the JCWP code and context with the project. On how to read the assessments themselves, we write in the article Classes and status of water quality.
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