Article 8 Monitoring

The competent authorities shall ensure that maps showing the percentage of grassland farms, the percentage of livestock and the percentage of agricultural land covered by authorisations in each County, as well as maps on local land use, are drawn up and that they are updated every year.

The competent authorities shall monitor soil, surface water and groundwater and shall provide the Commission with data on nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in soil water, on mineral nitrogen in the soil profile and on nitrate concentrations in groundwater and surface water, both under derogation and non-derogation conditions. The monitoring shall be carried out at farm field scale and in agricultural monitoring catchments. The monitoring sites shall be representative of the main soil types and levels of intensity, the prevalent fertilisation practices and the main crops.

The competent authorities shall conduct reinforced water monitoring in agricultural catchments located in proximity to the most vulnerable water bodies.

The competent authorities shall carry out surveys on local land use, crop rotations and agricultural practices for grassland farms covered by authorisations.

Information and data collected from nutrient analysis as referred to in Article 6(5) and from monitoring as referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article shall be used for model-based calculations of the magnitude of nitrate and phosphorus losses from grassland farms covered by authorisations.