Water Framework Directive: marine ecological tools for reference, intercalibration and classification (METRIC): final report for the ERTDI-funded project: 2005-W-MS-36

Water quality monitoring programmes exist in many of the Member States throughout the European Union (EU). With the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD, Council Directive 2000/60/EC) all Member States must harmonise their national monitoring methods for each common metric (parameter indicative of a biological water quality element) used to determine the state of the aquatic environment to ensure consistent and comparable classification results for all biological community quality elements used (WFD Annex V, 1.4.1). The Marine Ecological Tools for Reference, Intercalibrationand Classification (METRIC) project, therefore, was designed specifically to support the Irish role in the EU Intercalibration Exercise of biological quality elements (BQEs) in order to set harmonised ecological quality criteria for the assessment of water quality in the transitional and coastal (TraC) waters of Europe. The BQEs investigated by METRIC included: Plants (phytoplankton, macroalgae andangiosperms), Benthic macroinvertebrates (soft-bottom habitat), Fish (estuarine).Environmental Research Sub-Programme of the National Development Plan (NDP), the Inter-Departmental Committee for the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (IDC-SSTI), and EPA core funding and co-funding by economic sectors