Water bodies in Europe: Integrative System to assess Ecological status and Recovery (WISER)

Description:

The majority of European lakes, rivers and coastal ecosystems are degraded, in different levels. Eutrophication, organic pollution, intense catchment land use and habitat degradation affect almost all European surface waters. Ecosystem functions have been lost, and many aquatic species have disappeared from entire ecoregions. Recent European policies target a good ecological status of lakes, rivers and coastal ecosystems. To achieve this, water bodies need to be assessed by comparison with a quality target and, if the quality is below the target, to be restored. For many aquatic ecosystem types ecological assessment systems have been developed; river basin management plans outline the required restoration measures.

The WISER project addressed the questions that arose out of the good ecological status EU target. 25 European research institutions have developed integrative systems to assess ecological status, recovery and identified measures to improve management for different water categories (such as lakes, costal water, rivers). The role of global and climate change in aquatic ecosystem monitoring and management was highlighted. Detailed results and key messages can be found on the project website.

Project information

Lead

University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), Germany

Partners

Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Norway Natural Environment Research Council, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (NERC), UK AZTI-Tecnalia Foundation (TECNALIA AZTI), Spain University of Hull, Institute of Estuarine & Coastal Studies (UHULL), UK Aarhus University - National Environmental Research Institute (AU), Denmark French Research Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Engineering (CEMAGREF), France Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Sweden European Commission Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC), EU Institute of Environmental Protection (IEP), Poland Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB-FVB), Germany Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Finland Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain ALTERRA Green World Research (ALTERRA), Netherlands University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Austria Estonian University of Life Sciences (EMU), Estonia University College London (UCL), UK Institute for Ecosystem Studies (CNR-ISE,) Italy Deltares (DELFT), Netherlands University of Coimbra, Institute of Marine Research (IMAR), Portugal Institute of Oceanology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IO-BAS), Bulgaria Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland University of Salento (USALENTO), Italy University of Bournemouth (BourneU), UK La Sapienza University of Rome (UNIROMA1), Italy

Source of funding

FP7