River assessment in Germany

The Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) and the Working Group of the Federal States on Water Problems (Länderarbeitsgemeinschaft Wasser) have recently funded several projects, which developed the basis of a new, highly standardised river assessment method for Germany, which fulfils the demands of the WFD.

Products of the projects are:

• Field- and lab methods for benthic invertebrate samples

• An operational taxa list describing the identification level for future investigations

• New identification keys and a compilation of existing keys

• New assessment and calculation methods

• Software to assess the ecological status of rivers

This website describes the assessment procedure from the selection of a sampling site up to data interpretation.