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Environmental information systems
Ecological status is determined for rivers, lakes, transitional, and coastal waters based on biological quality elements (phytoplankton, macrophytes, phytobenthos, benthic invertebrate fauna and fish), and supporting physico-chemical (nutrients, oxygen condition, temperature, transparency, salinity and river basin specific pollutants (RBSPs)) and hydromorphological quality elements. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) specifies which elements are to be assessed for each water category and requires that biological and supporting quality elements achieve at least good status. The dashboards below provide an overview of the different results related to quality element status.
In this page:
1. Surface water bodies: Quality element group status [table]
2. Surface water bodies: Quality element status (2nd and 1st RBMP), by quality element [chart]
3. Surface water bodies: Quality element status (2nd and 1st RBMP), by country [chart]
4. Water Framework Directive - 2nd River Basin Management Plans - Quality Elements
Other WFD dashboards:
- Surface water quality element status
Disclaimer
Caution is advised when comparing Member States and when comparing the first and second RBMPs, as the results are affected by the methods Member States have used to collect data and often cannot be compared directly.
References
Further information is provided in a Draft guide to dashboards on delineation of water bodies, in chapter 1 of the EEA report European waters – assessment of status and pressures 2018, and section 2.2 Characterisation of surface waters of the WFD 2016 reporting guidance.