Assessment of the Ecological Status of European Surface Waters: A Work in Progress

The 'normative definitions' of ecological water quality classes given by the Water Framework Directive (WFD) are narrative descriptions of the conditions present in water bodies of different quality relative to reference conditions found in unimpacted sites. In order to fill these descriptions with a more solid content, the definitions have been a subject of intensive development of quantitative methodologies for ecological status assessment as well as for rules and criteria for setting of reference conditions and ecological status boundaries for classification of water bodies. Papers in the present special issue of Hydrobiologia ¿Assessment of the ecological status of European surface waters¿ contribute to this process, including some highlights of the WFD intercalibration process that has been carried out between 2002 and 2008. In the present paper the guest editors of the special issue recall the basic principles of the WFD that sometimes have been overlooked and point out some gaps remained and problems arisen during the ongoing implementation of the directive.

NOGES Peeter;  VAN DE BUND Wouter;  CARDOSO Ana;  SOLIMINI Angelo;  HEISKANEN Anna-Stiina; 

2009-09-14

SPRINGER

JRC53093

0018-8158,   

http://www.springerlink.com/content/ju705p10q421t161/,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC53093,   

10.1007/s10750-009-9883-9,