Europe's freshwaters are affected by water scarcity, droughts, floods and physical modifications. Many water bodies are at risk of failing to meet the aim of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) to achieve good status by 2015. Future policies should encourage demand management through actions...

Despite the vast amount of water on the planet, decades of unsustainable management mean that water shortages have reached crisis point in many regions. Globally, humans appropriate more than 50 % of all renewable and accessible freshwater, while billions still lack the most basic water services...

It is difficult to obtain a comparable overview of how much water is available in Europe due to huge differences in the way countries estimate their water resources. These guidelines propose a new approach to assessing water quantity, which will make national comparisons easier. They form part...

Water pollution caused by wastewater persists despite three decades of effort to clean up European surface waters and despite the requirements of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD). Several EU Member States have yet to satisfy the requirements of the directive. A European...

The report reviews the challenges facing Europe to adapt to the impacts of climate change on water resources. Water is a critical sector for people's lives and the economy. Even if emissions of greenhouse gases were stabilised today, increases in temperature and the associated impacts, including...

Water plays a central role in the functioning of the biosphere and in supporting all life. Freshwater ecosystems are particularly important, providing a unique and diverse array of services upon which human society depends. These services include 'provisioning' services, such as the provision of...

This report gives an overview of the main natural and artificial causes and impacts of floods and droughts in western and central European countries, as well as policy responses. It aims to help policy- and decision-makers in their work on preventing and managing such extreme events, as well as...

As a part of the work programme of the European Environment Agency (EEA), the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) has compiled a first version of a European marine database 'Marinebase'. This database on water quality parameters covers aggregated data related to eutrophication...