The four water categories: river, lakes, groundwater, transitional and coastal waters come under the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), Directive 2000/60/EC. The objective of the WFD is to prevent any further deterioration in status of surface waters, groundwater and water dependent ecosystems and to restore polluted waterbodies to at least “good status” by 2015. The monitoring programmes are an integral part of the new management strategy for water to meet this objective.
