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.