SOLUTIONS for present and future emerging pollutants in land
and water resources management
Introduction
Monitoring programs under the Water Framework
Directive -WFD- have accumulated vast amounts ofdata on contamination and on the ecological status of surface waters in the EU. At the same time, awealth of chemical property and emission data fromregistration of chemicals (e.g. REACH) is becoming
available. Although toxic effects on aquatic life are
frequently observed, it remains a great challenge
to link occurrence of chemicals with the ecologicalstatus of waters, to identify major chemical stressors,
and to find solutions for the abatement of pollutionrelated risks.
Typically, complex mixtures of priority pollutants,emerging substances, by- and transformation
products, and natural compounds occur in aquaticsystems. The sheer number of potentially harmful
chemicals challenges chemical monitoring, and consequently there is the danger that adverse impacts
on aquatic communities and human health from unknown or unexpected chemicals and mixtures remain
unrecognised.
Substances of emerging concern include a multitude
of polar and even ionic compounds for which manyof the classical analytical tools and predictive models
do not apply. These substances and mixtures thereof
may affect a multitude of toxicity pathways in organisms, populations, and communities.

An applicable conceptional framework and harmonized sensitive bioanalytical tools are lacking to coverthese pathways in monitoring. Chemical analytical
tools with analytical detection limits below the predicted no-effect-levels (PNEC) of target compounds
are often lacking as well. While there is increasing
knowledge on the production and use of chemicals,
there is a lack of understanding regarding sources,
transport pathways, transfer times, fate, and mixture
effects, together with insufficiently developed modelling capacity to reliable predict risks to ecosystems
and human health.
Monitoring, modelling and assessment of chemicals
in European water resources are further challenged
by the co-existence of the vast number of daily usedpesticides and biocides, personal care products,
pharmaceuticals, and additives to food, textiles andplastics with legacy chemicals whose production anduse are forbidden since decades. Being often very
persistent the latter are stored as parent compounds
or metabolites in sediments and still contribute torisks. However, it is not only present and historicalcontamination. Production and use of chemicals arehighly dynamic and prioritization and assessment
tools developed today should also help to predict
and address upcoming chemical risks.

Chemical pollution

Water quality

While concentrations of so-called Priority Pollutants
and classical Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
are declining there are strong indications that thecomplex mixture of the numerous emerging pollutants including pesticides, biocides, personal careproducts, pharmaceuticals, additives to food andplastics and many more pose a risk to aquatic ecosystems and human health.

Despite significant management efforts addressing
habitat quality the good ecological status of European surface waters as required by the Water Framework Directive is not achieved in most European water bodies. Sensitive species are declining and importecosystems goods and services are endangered.

SOLUTIONS addresses major gaps inassessing emerging pollutants including:
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•••
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detection at very low concentration
toxicant identification
fate prediction
European scale exposure prediction
scenarios for pollution of the futureabatement options

SOLUTIONS provides innovative approaches forassessing effects of emerging pollutants on thestatus of water resources including:•••••effect-based monitoring
ecological assessment
toxicity prediction
mixture effect prediction
ecological and human risk modelling1

Objectives
The overall goal of the FP7 Integrated Project­S OLUTIONS is to produce consistent solutions
for the large number of legacy, present and futurechemicals posing a risk to European water resources with respect to ecosystems and human health.
To this end, SOLUTIONS•••

develops a consistent conceptual framework forthe assessment, prioritization and abatement ofpollutants and mixtures thereof to protect European water resources and to minimize ecologicaland human health risks.
delivers efficient tools for the identification ofsubstances and mixtures posing risks by developing a new generation of monitoring approaches and tools for the early detection andidentification of harmful substances. At the sametime SOLUTIONS provides improved understanding and capacity for exposure, effect and risk
modelling compiling a full chain of conceptually
integrated models and databases accessible viaa user-friendly computer tool to support decisions in environmental and water policies.
demonstrates the added value of the new generation of tools in trans-European case studies inthe Danube, Rhine, and rivers of the Iberian peninsula with links to existing monitoring programs
such as the Joint Danube Survey.

A specific focus of SOLUTIONS is on user-friendly
products exploiting innovative science to provide
solutions for water resources and chemicals management. To meet this objective we•••••synthesize the new approaches, condense theminto user-friendly guidelines, computer tools andrecommendations for direct support of the implementation of WFD.
evaluate potential opportunities and obstacles forcooperation between the WFD and other existing
policies (e.g. REACH).
assess abatement options and control measuresfor emerging pollutants in waste and drinking
water treatment for effective risk reduction.
deliver a common knowledge base on a wide
range of toxicants, an evidence-based compilation of substances with emissions that might require regulation, and comprehensive lists of River
Basin Specific Pollutans -RBSPs- for the casestudy in the Danube river basin as a result of theintegrated application of the new generation ofmonitoring and modelling tools.
identify upcoming risks by emerging pollutants ofthe future on the basis of scenarios on economic
development, technology, demography, climatechange and others.

Approach
SOLUTIONS is structured into 4 highly integrated
sub-projects resulting in the workflow illustrated below. Subproject SP1 on Concepts & Solutions provides the conceptual framework for the entire project,defines the anticipated products, and organizes thedialogue with stakeholders in order to make sure that
we provide solutions for major problems on emerg-ing chemicals and water resources management.
SP1 guides and fully relies on the sub-projects SP2
on Tools, SP3 on Models, and SP4 on Cases whichdevelop most of the underlying tools, models anddata that are integrated and digested into solutions
for major problems.

2Case Studies
Models and tools developed in SOLUTIONS will beapplied, demonstrated and mutually validated in threeriver basin scale case studies with different focus. In
the Case Study Danube a novel integrated approachfor the identification of river basin specific pollutants is being developed combining effect-based andchemical monitoring tools with exposure and effectmodeling. The initial quality evaluation will be basedon the Joint Danube Survey 3 (http://www.dan-ubesurvey.org), an extensive sampling campaign fromthe upper course in Germany to the Danube delta in
Romania and Ukraine in August and September 2013.
The case study Rhine focuses on the evaluation of
the influence of upgrading of wastewater treatment
plants and innovative drinking water treatment technology on ecosystems and human health. Compoundprioritization under water scarcity conditions is addressed by Case Study Ebro and Llobregat.

Case Study Rhine
Focus: Abatement options inwaste- and drinking water management

Case Study Ebro and Llobregat
Focus: Risk assessment underwater scarcity

Case Study Danube
Focus: Identification of River Basin
Specific Pollutants

Project Facts
Project Type		Collaborative Project
Full title 		Solutions for present and future emerging pollutants in land and water resources				management
Acronym		 SOLUTIONSProgramme		
7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of the				European Commission
Grant agreement no.
603437
Start				October 1st, 2013End				September 30th, 2018
Website			www.solutions-project.eu
Contact			
Dr. David López Herráez (david.lopez-herraez@ufz.de)
Coordinator		
Dr. Werner Brack (werner.brack@ufz.de)				Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research –				UFZ, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
Consortium		
39 Organisations (Research Institutes, Enterprises and Universities)				
from 17 countries
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