A catchment-based water resource decision-support tool for the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom the Environment Agency of England and Wales have developed a number of initiatives to assist in implementing the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) including Catchment Management Strategies (CAMSs) and the Resource Assessment Management (RAM) Framework. These processes include setting river flow objectives and establishing best practice for the assessment of water resources at the catchment scale. Research jointly funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) and the Agency has developed nationally applicable probabilistic models for estimating the natural flow regime in any UK catchment, as represented by flow duration statistics. These estimation procedures have been combined with methodologies to incorporate the impact of seasonal water use on a catchmentscale within the Low Flows 2000 software system. This system is used by the Agency to address real world water resource issues associated with the implementation of the Directive’s over-arching strategic initiatives.