Objective setting framework for river basin management

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) establishes a range of different environmental objectives for the water environment. For river basin management planning, an objective setting process is required to enable decisions to be made about which of these environmental objectives are applicable to particular bodies of water. The flexibility to apply different objectives will allow improvements to the water environment to be prioritised over successive planning cycles whilst ensuring that the needs of water users and other stakeholders are properly taken into account in decision-making.