Environmental Quality Monitoring, Using Gis As A Tool Of Visualization, Management And Decision-Making: Applications Emerging From The Eu Water Framework Directive Eu 2000/60

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) has established new regulations for the registration and quality monitoring of water bodies. The concept of the directive is to introduce a holistic management approach, which brings together interdisciplinary scientific knowledge for the achievement of high water quality, and to ensure the creation of a harmonized coding system. To achieve this goal, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) provide adequate tools for the management, storage, visualization, and evaluation of environmental quality information, by combining water quality data with the classification of the risk for the water body, according to designated weights of influence of each selected parameter (such as geological morphology, sheer volume of the aquifer, point sources of pollution, and others according to the studied system). Furthermore, the integration of mathematical models in GIS can provide possibilities for the prediction of long term behaviour of a system under various scenarios of anthropogenic pressure. The aim of this chapter is the presentation of the latest applications and research concerning the use of GIS as an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tool for environmental management and water quality purposes.