Page 74 - Freshwater-Biology-and-Ecology-Handbook

Conclusion

This chapter provides an overview of the key elements of the Water Framework Directive
approach to river basin management and the monitoring and assessment needed to provide the
information needed for decision making. It also emphasises the technical capability and resource
required to undertake this in a consistent way across the UK and the EU.

The WFD approach is a useful model for all river basins around the world. However, modifications
to suit local situations will be required and are advocated positively. It is hoped that providing
access to the considerable body of work undertaken by the EU and Member States to implement
the WFD will speed up the development of new methods and applications. The EU has been
promoting this and the China Europe Water Platform and the India – EU Water Partnership
initiatives are two examples of this important knowledge exchange.
The use of biological and ecological monitoring and assessment has been well established
through the development and implementation of the WFD. This has introduced new challenges
and issues to overcome. Continued development is required to face the issues of climate change,
water shortages and floods. However, changing the input parameters to simulate new scenarios
will allow the WFD approach to be adapted to changing situations. Water planning requires a
long-term approach. The 30-year horizon of the WFD takes us some way towards this.

To inform the overall structure of this handbook, Figure 1.24 shows a schematic diagram of the
monitoring and assessment cycle that underpins the WFD and other monitoring programmes.

To recap, surveillance monitoring is focused at identifying long-term changes, and through this
the state of the environment can be assessed against the objectives set: known as compliance
assessment. Closely linked, the operational monitoring focuses on risk, to derive information
relating to improvement programmes. Investigative monitoring is used to understand issues such
as failures against objectives or accidental pollution impacts. Together they should make up a
balanced monitoring and assessment programme that optimises scarce resource.

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