WATER

The overall goal of the WATER project was to strengthen the scientific foundation of water management programmes. To achieve this goal, the project planned to establish and demonstrate an innovative set of methods and tools for the design and implementation of programmes for the preservation of the high environmental quality and good ecological status of water bodies.

The major technical objective of the project was to establish and implement detailed, distributed dynamic simulation models in terms of a dynamic water budget (based on the natural climate-driven hydrological cycle, anthropogenic demand and allocations), resulting in water availability and quality criteria.

It introduced the concept of the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) as a means of enhancing the procedures for water quality management. Equally important was the aim of the project to inform and involve stakeholders and key players that influence or are affected by water management decisions. Therefore great emphasis was given to dissemination of the project tools and methods through a pilot implementation action, which promoted the proposed tools to a big audience of stakeholders.