Monitoring of waters

Most European countries have water quality monitoring programmes for groundwater, rivers and lakes, where water quality is measured on a regular basis.

Within the EU, water quality monitoring is currently being harmonised and strengthened by the implementation of the Water Framework Directive.

The objective of water quality monitoring is to obtain quantitative information on the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water via statistical sampling. The type of information sought depends on the objectives and purposes of the monitoring programme, such as detection of drinking water standard violations or assessment of water quality trends.

The following pages describe:

• Introduction and overview of monitoring activities
• Eionet water and waterbase