Monitoring of Water Quality in Coastal and Transitional Waters in Greece according to the WFD

The Water Framework Directive 2000/60/ΕΕ (EC, 2000), internationally known as WFD, is the basic legislative management tool of water resources within the European Union (EU). HCMR is coordinating the national programme “Monitoring network for the ecological status quality of the inland, transitional and coastal waters of Greece”. Within this framework the Institute of Oceanography leads the monitoring network of Coastal and Transitional Waters in Greece for the classification of their Ecological Status according to the WFD.

Assessing the ecological status of coastal and transitional water bodies requires the investigation of numerous ecosystem components.

More specifically, the biological quality elements of phytoplakton, seaweeds, seagrasses and benthic macroinvertabrates, as well as, the hyrdomorphological characteristics (currents and circulation), the geochemical (sediment granulometry and total organic carbon) and several physicochemical parameters (water column temparature, salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, nutrients and heavy metals) are monitored in a network of 114 sampling stations.

Beyond the WFD requirements, the monitoring network is also providing biological material for a better understanding of the Greek biodiversity and ecological processes in coastal and transitional waters.

More information can be found at : https://wfd.hcmr.gr/