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An additional weakness in the national systems used for ecological status assessment of water bodies in the first RBMPs is that the class boundaries for the supporting quality elements (e.g. nutrients, organic matter etc.) in many cases are not well linked to the class boundaries for the biological quality elements, and in some cases are quite relaxed compared to the responses of the biological quality elements (ref. to Ulli Claussen and Jens Arle’s comparison of nutrient standards).

For ecological potential of heavily modified and artificial water bodies, the assessment systems applied have either been the same as those for ecological status (for example in terms of phytoplankton chlorophyll in Mediterranean reservoirs or fish in Alpine rivers), or been based on expert judgement considering possible measures that could be used to improve the ecological potential.