WFD should contribute to the improvement of the water status in the European Community. Waters shall be monitored consequently in the area of their catchment area in the future. Interstate or international boundaries shall not impair the water protection on the river basin district level.

The aims of the WFD were incorporated in the Water Law (Wasserhaushaltsgesetz, WHG) of the Federation, as well as in the single water acts of all Federal States. Despite the provisions of the WFD and their implementation in the national legislation, it is necessary for result comparison within the EU to elaborate common strategies and a common understanding for the implementation of the created rules. Working groups of specialists on European level are working together in the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS), in order to clear the specific questions regarding the implementation of the WFD. On German level, the requests proposed by the Working Group on water issues of the Federal States (Länderarbeitsgemeinschaft Wasser, LAWA) are processed in order to support a uniform implementation in Germany. Within the exclusive national river basin district (RBD) of Weser, there are seven Federal States which have come together in a River Basin Commission (RBC) Weser in order to reach the objectives of the WFD together. The operative activities of this water management coordination tasks nationwide, e.g. the elaboration of the river basin management plan for the RBD Weser are conducted by the Management Office of the River Basin Commission.

Inventory (Analysis of the situation)

Until the end of 2004 an inventory was done in order to describe the actual state of water in the RBD Weser. The inventory has to be reviewed until 2013 and it must be updated as well every six years thereafter (Art. 5 WFD).

Monitoring program

According to Art. 8 of the WFD, monitoring programs were set up 2006 for the RBD Weser. With the help of the monitoring networks defined in these programs, surface waters and the groundwater are monitored regularly, in order to recognize the impacts and to review the effects of measures.

The following monitoring types represent the main pillars of the monitoring:

Surveillance monitoring controls continuously and representative the water quality by means of a firmly arranged network of monitoring points.

Operative monitoring is performed in a more narrow net of monitoring points, and is flexibly adjusted, spatially and temporally, to a certain pressure. This type completes the surveillance monitoring in those bodies of water which do not show a good status.