The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) is one of the most studied environmental legislations and recently turned twenty. The paper deals with a literature search and analysis of 4120 references related to this Directive. After a period of strong increase in article production (2002-2012) WFD scientific productivity is currently still high (~ 260 papers year), suggesting a persistent interest of the scientific community on this issue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn relation to hydromorphological alteration the Water Framework Directive (WFD), a major piece of European legislation, has introduced the concept of Heavily Modified Water Bodies (HMWB). In water bodies falling in this category, hydromorphological modifications are permanent, significantly alter the character of the river and cannot be removed without compromising the use of the water body. In HMWBs a dedicated approach to the evaluation of their status is set, and their Ecological Potential must be assessed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe positive effect of mitigation measures on in-stream habitat conditions and the benthic community is recognised. In heavily modified rivers, though, the response of aquatic invertebrates to mitigation measures and habitat mosaic changes is scarcely documented. We used non-metric multidimensional scaling to explore the benthic community of leveed rivers in the agricultural lowlands of Northern Italy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe hypothesized that reach-scale, bank and channel modification would impact benthic communities in temporary rivers of Sardinia, when pollution and water abstraction are not relevant. A range of variables were considered, which include both artificial structures/alterations and natural features observed in a stream reach. Multivariate regression trees (MRT) were used to assess the effects of the explanatory variables on invertebrate assemblages and five groups, characterized by different habitat modification and/or features, were recognized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne objective of the European Union (EU)'s Water Framework Directive (WFD: Directive 2000/60/EC) is for all European surface waters to achieve 'good status' by 2015. In support of this objective, the EU has facilitated an intercalibration exercise to ensure harmonized definitions of the status of water bodies, reflecting the deviation of their properties (mainly biotic assemblages) from a minimally disturbed state, termed the "reference condition". One of the major challenges of the WFD has been to find common approaches for defining reference conditions and to define the level of anthropogenic intervention allowed in reference sites.
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