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The Need for New Monitoring Tools to Implement the WFD

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The Need for New Monitoring Tools to Implement the WFD

Publication
Citation

Thomas Dwoark et. al. (2005): The Need for New Monitoring Tools to Implement the WFD.

In order to meet reporting requirements linked to environmental legislation, policy makers are increasingly in need of accurate and timely information on water quality. This paper explores how and to what extent new monitoring devices can help European Union members meet the special requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD).

The overall objective of the WFD is to bring about the effective co-ordination of water environment policy and regulation in order to protect and enhance inland surface waters, transitional waters, costal waters and groundwater in Europe. The implementation of the WFD will rely heavily on monitoring programmes. Only if monitoring data are of reliable and comparable quality, the WFD will represent a powerful management tool.

The paper will introduce an ongoing research project called SWIFT-WFD (Screening methods for Water data InFormation in support of the implementation of the Water Framework Directive). SWIFT-WFD is seeking to find ways to comply with the monitoring needs outlined by the WFD.

Current monitoring is inadequate in terms of coverage area and time length, and the WFD determines the most urgent needs for new and low cost monitoring devices. Therefore, more research is needed. The SWIFT-WFD project is trying to find solutions to cope with these problems.

Language
English
Authorship
Thomas Dworak
Cornelius Laaser
Eduard Interwies
Catherine Gonzalez
Published in
Environmental Science & Policy Volume 8 No. 3
Published by
Year
Dimension
5 pp.
ISSN
1462-9011
DOI
Project
Project ID
Table of contents
Keywords
Water Framework Directive, Monitoring, Screening, Framework Programme 6