ABSTRACT
Prior to the introduction of the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD) (Section 7.2), water resources were managed on an individual basis, with little coherent policy in terms of how water bodies interacted with each other, or how landbased activities affected them. The concept of catchment management emerged in the 1970s and led to the formation of catchment-based water authorities in the UK. This allowed improved management of water resources, especially the regulation of flow in major rivers. River Catchment Management Plans were developed in Ireland in the early 1980s and were used to set water quality standards based on use criteria. However, other water bodies such as lakes, groundwaters and coastal waters were largely ignored within such plans leading to these resources being largely unmanaged and unmonitored. The WFD provides a unique management structure that deals with the whole water cycle and isolates the water cycle from contamination by hazardous substances by eliminating them at source. Using an updated and streamlined group of Directives, water is effectively protected from all land-based sources of pollution for the first time, preventing hazardous substances from being lost into the marine environment. Setting emission limits through the Urban Wastewater Treatment and Integrated Pollution Prevention Control Directives controls point sources of pollution; while diffuse pollution is controlled by the Nitrates Directive and the application, through the WFD, of best environmental practices (Section 7.4). The development of catchment management is examined in Sections 7.1 and 7.2.
