EQB — Organic Quality Elements of Lakes

Legislative Decree 152/2006, transposing Directive 2000/60/EC, introduces the principle that organisms living in lakes are considered the dominant element in understanding the status of the water body itself, the quality of the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. The Organic Quality Elements (EQB) monitored over the three years 2010-2013 in the lakes of Veneto are: macroinvertebrates, macrophytes and phytoplankton. The legislation requires that the EQBs to be monitored are chosen on the basis of objectives and the 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 BQEs should be monitored. For the assessment the EQB used is only phytoplankton, since the indices for macroinvertebrates and macrophytes are still being refined at national level and are not fully applicable