3. European significant water management issues

As explained in section 1.1, the European significant water management issues presented in this report summarise EU-level evidence on the main issues and challenges that put European water bodies most at risk of not achieving the WFD environmental objectives.

Ten European significant water management issues (SWMIs) are being presented, which are related to pollution issues, hydromorphological pressures, abstractions and water scarcity, problems related to aquaculture and invasive alien species. These European SWMIs arise from ongoing human activities (such as agriculture or energy production) but also partly from historic human activities (e.g. obsolete barriers on rivers, abandoned mines) and new developments (e.g. new hydropower plants).

The ten European SWMIs have been selected based on the analysis of significant pressures affecting water bodies in the 2^nd RBMPs (see EEA 2018 assessment of status and pressures of European waters). Pressures were selected that affect a sufficiently large share of European water bodies. In addition, European SWMIs have been selected, which were long time important enough to develop a rather solid basis of knowledge and information to describe the scope of the issue at European level. Additional European SWMIs may be identified in the future as European data collection and research improves on activities and pressures that put water bodies at risk of reaching WFD objectives.