Water sustainability and the implementation of the Water Framework Directive - a European perspective

Many resource demands are competing for available fresh water resources and have an impact on ecosystem sustainability. Within the European context the Water Framework Directive (WFD) is the main legislative instrument for water protection and requires member states to ensure water bodies (freshwater and coastal marine) achieve good ecological status by 2015. Member states must engage in a range of activities, including river basin management planning, to meet the aspirations of the WFD. These river basin management plans need to include objectives for each water body; reasons for not achieving the targets; and the programme of actions required to meet the goals that deliver good ecological status within a catchment. The multidisciplinary approach known as Ecohydrology supports this by promoting regulation of fundamental ecological processes. This paper illustrates how WFD and river basin management planning principles are applied using Scotland as the example.