The EC Water Framework Directive mandates that good ecological status should be reached in all water bodies in Europe by 2015. To this end, according to Article 11 of the Directive, programmes of measures shall be established for all river basins. The selection and combination of measures within these programmes should also take account of cost-effectiveness considerations. In an article for the Journal gwf Wasser / Abwasser, Benjamin Görlach, Nicole Kranz and Eduard Interwies present a possible methodology for this selection process, which was developed by Ecologic for the German Federal Environment Agency.

In the third issue of the Journal for European Environmental and Planning Law (JEEPL), Nicole Kranz, Benjamin Görlach and Eduard Interwies published an article on the selection of cost-effective combinations of measures according to Article 11 of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The article highlights the results of the project "Basic principles for selecting the most cost-effective combinations of measures", conducted by Ecologic in 2003 for the German Federal Environmental Agency.

The Water Framework Directive requires the establishment of programs of measures for river basins until 2009 in order to reach the set quality targets for water bodies. In this selection process, the consideration of cost-efficiency criteria is mandated. The German study/handbook prepared by Ecologic in collaboration with the Institute of Water Resources Research and Management at the University of Kassel establishes guidelines for this selection process. The handbook has been published in English and German.

Based on a description of the relevant national and European guidelines for the implementation of the WFD and a case study analysis of the prevailing pressures on German water bodies, an exemplary catalogue of applicable measures and instruments were compiled. The included measures and instruments are described in greater detail in data sheets contained in the annex. The study differentiates between concrete technical measures and administrative, economic and informational instruments, which facilitate and support the implementation of the measures.