Innovative methods and approaches for WFD: ideas to fill knowledge gaps in science and policy

The Water Framework Directive – WFD (2000/60/EC) is the cornerstone of European Union water policy. Its main objective is to protect and enhance the status of aquatic ecosystems and promote sustainable water use across Europe. The WFD summarises much of the European experience of pollution, water quality and ecosystem management, and it represents a new and compressive way of source-to-sink thinking, where the primary goals are to achieve the desired quality of the water resources and to ensure that there is enough clean water for different applications. This way of thinking is widely accepted and the WFD is becoming the most substantial and ambitious piece of European environmental legislation to date. However, twenty years after the WFD has been introduced, achieving its objectives still remains a challenge, with 60% of EU surface waters failing the good ecological status in 2018. There is growing concern that the objective of good status in all EU waters (i.e. over 111.000 surface waters and over 13.000 groundwaters) by 2027 is a long way from being achieved in many countries. This paper discusses how science and water policy can incorporate innovations and new approaches and adapt to the newly identified challenges (e.g. biodiversity, climate change and springs ecosystems) facing European waters.