The Danish watershed plans stipulate 119 coastal waters distributed over four water districts. Overall, the state of the water areas is assessed on the basis of the indicators (quality elements) chlorophyll, eelgrass and bottom fauna. The indicators are monitored in the national monitoring program. When the river basin plans were published in 2016, two coastal waters had met their targets, but the trend is towards improving the condition. As a result of the previous aquatic environment efforts, significant reductions in nitrogen emissions from land-based sources have occurred. During the period 1990-2010, the emissions of nitrogen from land have been halved, and the emissions of phosphorus have been reduced to approx. a third.