ABSTRACT
The debate is now dominated by an increased awareness of integrated management approaches taking into account environmental, economic and social considerations, and by a search for strategies which go beyond technical end-of-pipe solutions. Water crises have often been caused by problems of governance and inefficient and ineffective management, not by resource or technology problems. The rising demand to better account for the full complexity of the systems being managed is driven in part by a better appreciation of increasing uncertainties due to climate change and globalization. The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) which came into force in 2000 signaled a new area in the European Water Policy which had become increasingly compartmentalized by numerous specific directives such as the Nitrate Directive, Bathing Water Directive, etc. The WFD prescribes an ambitious schedule with the first implementation cycle ending in 2015. The European Flood Directive (FD) on the assessment and management of flood risks entered into force in November 2007.
