EQB — Elements of Biological Quality of Rivers

Legislative Decree 152/2006, transposing Directive 2000/60/EC, introduces the principle that organisms living in watercourses are considered the dominant element in understanding the status of the water body, the quality of the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. The Organic Quality Elements (EQB) monitored during the three-year period 2010-2012 in the Veneto waterways are: macroinvertebrates, macrophytes and diatoms. The legislation provides for a selection of EQBs to be monitored in watercourses on the basis of objectives and assessment of pressures and impacts; in particular, on water bodies that are defined to be at risk of not reaching the ‘Good’ status within the deadlines required by the legislation, the most sensitive EQBs should be selected and monitored to the pressures to which water bodies are subject. On water bodies that have been identified as not at risk of achieving “Good” status, all EQBs should be monitored.