Assessment of the Chemical Water Status: Phosphate

Within the National Surface Water Quality Monitoring Programme (NAWA), water quality is recorded jointly by the federal and cantonal authorities at around 100 monitoring stations. The chemical water status is assessed on the basis of the phosphate concentration by the “Physicochemical Water Quality, Nutrients” method in the Modular Stepwise Procedure (www.modul-stufen-konzept.ch). Orthophosphate (PO43-) represents the direct physiologically effective phosphorus component for plants and is an indicator of anthropogenic nutrient loading in surface waters. In contrast to lakes, phosphorus in rivers and streams is not normally limiting for algae and plant growth. Thus a higher phosphate concentration in a river does not represent a eutrophication risk for the watercourse, but does indicate a concentration which is incompatible with the natural state as a result of anthropogenic inputs.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Identifier 4c2c25da-35fe-40a8-97be-feb29051a170@bundesamt-fur-umwelt-bafu
Title for URL of the dataset beurteilung-des-chemischen-gewasserzustandes-phosphat
Schedule the publication of the dataset -
Issued date March 26, 2014
Modification date -
Conforms to -
Update interval Annual
Temporal coverage -
Publisher Information Federal Office for the Environment / Hydrology Division
Contact points hydrologie@bafu.admin.ch
Languages Language independent
URL https://www.bafu.admin.ch/de/nawa
Relation geocat.ch permalink
Spatial Schweiz
Related datasets -
Documentation -
Keywords
Terms of use https://opendata.swiss/terms-of-use#terms_open
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