Analysing the concept of "significant-damage" and its application to groundwater-dependent wetlands in Spain.

European Groundwater Conference: Groundwater Protection in the EU (2010. Madrid). - PósterThis project attempts to analyse the viability of different methodologies to evaluate the risk of significant damage (Directive 118/2006/EC) to groundwater-dependent wetland ecosystems. One of these has been successfully applied in the UK and Ireland during 2006 and 2007, and essentially evaluates the risk of significant damage as a function of a source-pathway-receptor model. This aims at establishing the potential impact of different threats, both qualitative and quantitative, on wetland ecology. The study at hand focuses on identifying groundwater-dependent wetlands, establishing the hydraulic connection between surface and groundwater and the dependence of plants of groundwater inputs.Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, EspañaDepartamento de Geodinámica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Españ