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A Methodology for the Evaluation of Water Policies in European Countries

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Abstract

Periodic assessment of progress toward established policy goals is crucial to understanding whether the applied efforts are effective. In Europe, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) adopted in year 2000 set ambitious environmental objectives to be achieved by the end of 2015 through the implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles. While at this stage it is premature to measure the impact of this Directive in terms of environmental outcomes, it is nonetheless important to develop indicators in order to monitor whether water management practices throughout Europe are aligning towards IWRM. This article presents the methodological development of the Water and Wetland Index, a comparative water policy assessment by environmental NGOs that was carried out in 2002–2003, and highlights the interest of repeating it in 2015, when the first WFD planning cycle will be completed.

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Acknowledgments

This research was carried out as part of a PhD dissertation (De Stefano 2005) undertaken in the framework of the Water and Wetland Index II project (9E0702_06) of the WWF European Living Waters Programme, with funding from the MAVA Foundation and WWF. The authors are grateful to organizations and individuals who contributed to the survey with information and advice: European Commission (Marta Moren Abat, Liam Cashman, José Martín Rizo), European Environment Agency (Peter Kristensen), WWF European Freshwater Team; the governmental and non governmental organizations that accepted to participate in the survey data gathering; and the NGOs and consultants that collected country data: WWF’s European Freshwater Team, Voice of Irish Concern for the Environment, Liga para a Protecção da Natureza, Centre for Environmental Information & Education, ZEUS, Jan Hanusin, Gulnara Roll, Ylo Sults, and the Estonian Fund for Nature. The authors are in debt with Paris Edwards, Dr. Jonathan Lautze, Dr. Elena López-Gunn, Prof. Brent Steel, and Prof. Aaron T. Wolf for their constructive input to this article and would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments to an earlier version of this article.

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  1. Departamento de Geodinámica, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, c/ Jose Antonio Novais 2, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Lucia De Stefano, Javier de Pedraza Gilsanz & Fermín Villarroya Gil

  2. Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, 104 Wilkinson Hall, Corvallis, OR, 97331-5506, USA

    Lucia De Stefano

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  1. Lucia De Stefano
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  2. Javier de Pedraza Gilsanz
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Correspondence to Lucia De Stefano.

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De Stefano, L., de Pedraza Gilsanz, J. & Villarroya Gil, F. A Methodology for the Evaluation of Water Policies in European Countries. Environmental Management 45, 1363–1377 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-010-9492-4

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