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2.  Introduction

Water resource management in Europe is complex owing to the diverse geo-physical, climatic, socio-economic, and political realities that exist across member states. Water is generally abundant in much of the region, but it is also unevenly distributed in both time and space, with large areas experiencing increasing levels of water scarcity and drought (EEA 2010a), and particular locations are more at risk of flooding. Climate change is predicted to further exacerbate this in certain areas (IPCC 2012), however the exact changes and impacts are uncertain and are difficult to isolate from the more direct anthropogenic stressors. At the European level a multitude of freshwater assessments have been made available, driven by the State of the Environment Reporting (SoER), and supported by the EU and other international organisations. These assessments have primarily focused on the states and pressures of European waters, but recent assessment (EEA 2011b) has showed their scope to be too narrow, requiring a shift in focus towards management and measures.