Mapping of Areas Visited for Recreational Aquatic Activities in Portugal

Contract

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In the 1970s, the European Union introduced rules to ensure the cleanliness of coastal and continental bathing waters through its 1976 Bathing Water Directive. In 2006, this law was updated for the first time and its rules simplified.

The aim of the Bathing Water Directive 2006/7/EC3 is to protect human health and to preserve, protect and improve the quality of the environment. To achieve these objectives, the directive lays down provisions for :

• the monitoring and classification of bathing water quality at designated bathing sites,

• the management of bathing water quality at these sites,

• public access to information on bathing water quality.

14 years after it was first updated, in 2020, the European Commission launched a new assessment of the Directive to establish whether it was necessary to revise and update the legislation again. Surfrider is actively involved in the revision of the Directive, notably through its Manifesto, but also within the working groups set up by the European institutions.

In this context, and in response to the limitations of the Directive, we have submitted to the European Commission, in June 2021, a European Manifesto for Healthy Waters, calling on the European Union to reconsider the monitoring of bathing water quality.

As the European Commission prepares to publish the conclusions of its assessment, we are seeking for further evidence to support the recommendations of our Manifesto. In particular, Supporting data to include recreational users (such as surfers, divers...) in the scope of the Directive.

Water-based recreation and leisure activities are very popular in Europe and go beyond simple swimming. People who take part in these activities are more exposed to health risks because they very often do so outside bathing areas as defined in the regulations, and for longer periods of time. What's more, there are no physical boundaries between what are considered "bathing waters" and "recreational waters".

We want to prove that the current list of officially designated sites does not cover recreational uses such as surfing, diving, kayaking, etc.

We want to know to what extent areas used for recreational purposes are not already taken into account in the bathing sites officially designated under the Directive (21,973 listed in 2022). We therefore need data to justify this choice and demonstrate that it responds to a real social issue.

The information we are looking for is as follows:

• Sources/sites providing a list or overview surf spots/water sports areas, etc. on a local, regional or national scale

• A list of sites used for recreational purposes, specifying their name, geographical location and the type of activity practised

• A comparison between the sites identified and those officially listed as bathing areas by the Member States

The list of bathing sites listed under the Directive can be retrieved from the European Environment Agency's website: https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/explore-interactive-maps/state-of-bathing-waters-in-2022
On this site, you can access the page listing all the bathing sites monitored at national level for each country (by clicking on the Member State, then "National bathing water webpage - view" in the table that appears).

We are looking for English and Portuguese speaking online volunteers interested in doing research on the existence of recreational areas in Portugal and compile these sites back to us in a short Word or Excel document, specifying which activities are most practices in these zones, along with the list of sources used.

Identification of sites that are not already designated as bathing areas would be a plus (see official list through hyperlink provided in the task description).