The Development of a System to Assess the Ecological Quality of Streams Based on Macroinvertebrates – Design of the Sampling Programme within the AQEM Project

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires river assessment systems based on benthic invertebrates. The AQEM project is developing, at a European scale, such a methodology, based on a comparison of communities of reference streams and degraded streams. The project is focussing on three main impact types: morphological degradation, organic pollution and acidification. This paper presents the outline of the AQEM project with special emphasis on: – an overview of assessment systems with benthic invertebrates presently applied in Europe – an overview of stream typology approaches in Europe – the selection process of the stream types investigated in AQEM – the criteria used to select reference sites – the design of the sampling programme – the microhabitat-based sampling method applied in AQEM – the links and possibilities of integration between AQEM and existing assessment systems.