Bayesian decision tables for estimation of risk of water management decisions based on uncertain surface water status: a case study of a Polish catchment

Abstract

Abstract Background Uncertain results of the status assessment performed as required by the Water Framework Directive can be responsible for misclassification of a water body’s status and may lead either to risk due to undertaking unnecessary remediation actions or risk of penalties for refraining from any action and not reaching environmental goals. Based on Bayesian decision theory, optimal decision tables are shown for two examples of water quality indicators, for a river catchment in central Poland. To overcome the problem of scarcity of publicly available monitoring data, the existing SWAT model for the studied catchment was used to generate nutrient concentration time series for the baseline conditions and under different scenarios. The status classes assessed based on annual mean concentrations of daily values for total phosphorus and total nitrogen were adopted as the ‘true’ status classes of the water bodies based on each indicator. SWAT simulation results enabled calculation of probability distributions of concentrations for the stochastic states of the water body, both for the period before and after the performance of corrective actions. Results Bayesian decision tables consisted of alternative management decisions including modernization of the existing wastewater treatment plants in the case of phosphorous and also of fallowing agricultural areas in the case of nitrogen. An example of a penalty calculation procedure is presented in the event that the subject of the case before the EU Court of Justice would be failure to achieve the environmental objectives by all water bodies belonging to the selected catchment. Conclusions Detailed discussion of this analysis indicates the potential benefits in terms of minimization of costs/losses that the proposed methodology may bring to the protection of surface waters. The presented method of risk analysis for making decisions on remedial actions when uncertainty exists about the water status assessment, can be considered as a prototype of a general methodology prepared for implementation in water protection. Unfortunately paying fines instead of taking remediation measures might be optimal for uncertain status of water bodies.