Strategic monitoring for the European Water Framework Directive

TLDR: In this article, the principal monitoring requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) of the European Union (EU) and assesses how contaminant monitoring may fit into a risk-assessment approach.

Abstract: This article first reviews the principal monitoring requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) of the European Union (EU) and assesses how contaminant monitoring may fit into a risk-assessment approach. In this context, we show the limited ability of conventional trace-contaminant-monitoring methods to fulfil all of the WFD requirements. We then clearly define and exemplify the roles and the functions of a new set of monitoring tools, using three case studies based on datasets that we obtained during a field trial in the River Meuse as part of the Screening methods for Water data InFormaTion (SWIFT-WFD) project in support of implementing the WFD.