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Over a number of years considerable financial and political effort is being expended by the European Union and Member States in gaining a better understanding of the factors that effect European coastal waters and their interaction with river basins and the effect of land-use on resulting fluxes of contaminants to coastal zones. For example since 1996 DG Research thematic network ELOISE (European Land Ocean Interaction Studies) has been making a major contribution to the understanding of major controlling processes in a wide range of ecosystems and climatic conditions and is now widely recognised as a major targeted contribution of the European Union to LOICZ core project of IGBP.

Figure 1: DPSIR approach

DG Environment programme on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) has been investigating the reasons for the observed continued degradation of many of Europe's coastal areas (COM 511/95).
Specifically this may be traced to: insufficient or inappropriate information, both about the state of the coastal zone and also about the impact of human activities (economic and non-economic); insufficient coordination between different levels and sectors of administrations and their policies; and insufficient participation and consultation of relevant stakeholders. The lessons learnt since 1996-1999 have been used to formulate a possible way forward to a European Integrated Coastal Zone Management Strategy, see COM (2000)-547 on Integrated Coastal Zone Management: A Strategy for Europe.

The need for timely and coherent information on river basins and coastal zones and their interactions has also been widely recognised by the EU and Member States in the framework of the application of a wide range of Directives related to Water (Framework Water Directive, Nutrient, Waste Water Directives etc.). In order to assess the efficiency of the application of these Directives (implementation) information is needed from a wide range of investigations.

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