Realising water quality standards in river basins

Across Europe EU member states and local authorities are required to develop river basin water management plans. A key element of the basin plans is a programme of measures (POM) for each river basin district. The POM outlines the most cost effective management measures and their application to meet the objectives of good ecological status. The measures shall remedy conflicts between economic benefits from water use and associated pollution. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) states that POM must be implemented by 2012.

An example of this is the basin water plan for the Susaa basin, Sealand, Denmark, where the local EPA representative is responsible for developing a plan. The EPA experienced challenges in formulating consistent methodologies and tools to develop POM and associated basin plans.

To meet these challenges the EPA in partnership with DHI has developed a comprehensive Water Framework Directive (WFD) planning tool. This easy to use toolset allows users to pose questions and obtain answers to support in water management decision making.