WFD-Art.18 context and methodology

Water Framework Directive section in WISE Freshwater

This WISE Freshwater section focuses on:

• Status of EU waters, based on the third river basin management plans reported by Member States;
• Pressures that are causing less than good status;
• Change since the first and second  river basin management planning

Results are shown for the status of surface waters and groundwater in Europe. Overviews are provided at EU and Member State level, while linked expert dashboards provide more detailed information.

Data sources and methodology

This WISE Freshwater section shows data and information reported electronically by countries to EEA into the Eionet Common Data Repository.

Currently, 21 EU Member States plus  Norway had electronically reported their third River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs.  The data have been quality checked and stored in the WISE-SoW database together with data from the first and second RBMPs. These have been and used to produce key statistics, explanatory charts and expert dashboards.
WFD data were reported in accordance with the WFD reporting guidance 2022.
Member States have electronically reported 19 river basin districts under the third RBMPs. The RBMPs can consist of many documents providing detailed information on water body status and pressures affecting status, monitoring programmes and the Programme of Measures to be implemented during that management cycle.  These are available via the European Commission website.

• Caution is advised when comparing Member States and when comparing between first, second and third RBMPs. Results may be affected by the methods Member States have used to collect and report data.
• Unless stated otherwise, for surface waters, values represent the number of water bodies. For groundwaters, values represent the area (km2).
• For surface waters, ecological status considers rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters. These plus territorial waters are included in chemical status.