Water Framework Directive - Quality Elements | European Environment Agency's home page

The Quality Elements map contains information from the River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) reported by EU Member States, Norway and the United Kingdom according to article 13 of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The map shows the quality element status or potential for the European surface water bodies. The Quality Element status layer contains the ecological status or potential based on the quality element status value (i.e. the lowest of the known quality element status values per waterbody).

The ecological status or potential is presented for the following quality elements:

QE1 - Biological quality elements; QE1-1 - Phytoplankton; QE1-2 - Other aquatic flora QE1-2-1 - Macroalgae; QE1-2-2 - Angiosperms; QE1-2-3 - Macrophytes; QE1-2-4 - Phytobenthos; QE1-3 - Benthic invertebrates; QE1-4 – Fish.

QE2 - Hydromorphological quality elements; QE2-1 - Hydrological or tidal regime; QE2-2 - River continuity conditions; QE2-3 - Morphological conditions.

QE3 - Chemical and physico-chemical quality elements; QE3-1 - General parameters; QE3-1-1 - Transparency conditions; QE3-1-2 - Thermal conditions; QE3-1-3 - Oxygenation conditions; QE3-1-4 - Salinity conditions; QE3-1-5 - Acidification status; QE3-1-6 - Nutrient conditions; QE3-1-6-1 - Nitrogen conditions; QE3-1-6-2 - Phosphorus conditions; QE3-3 - River Basin Specific Pollutants.

The map also includes the River Basin Districts (RBDs) and their sub-units, the surface water bodies (water body category, ecological status or potential and chemical status) and the surface water monitoring sites.

Water Framework Directive - Quality Elements

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References and footnotes