Classification of coastal waters according to the new Italian water legislation and comparison with the European Water Directive

New legislation for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and ground waters has recently been established in Italy. This law presents a new integrated approach, where all water bodies are considered as complex ecosystems to be studied in each of their components. The new concept of environmental quality of the water body, based on the ecological and chemical status, is also introduced. At the same time (i.e. the end of 2000), the European Community approved the European Water Framework Directive based on the same basic environmental concepts and criteria of the new Italian law. This paper analyses the important points and innovations required by the new Italian legislation for monitoring and classification of marine coastal waters. Details of definitions, parameters, analysis and monitoring programs are discussed. A comparison with the European Water Framework Directive is eventually given, underlining the specific characteristics of the Mediterranean sea, which have to be taken into consideration when applying the European Directive to this particular ecoregion.     

Daphne: a new multimetric benthic index for the quality assessment of marine coastal environment in the Northern Adriatic Sea

A new benthic index, named Daphne, is proposed for the Northern Adriatic coastal area, near the Po river delta. It is based on six characteristics of the community that do not require in-depth taxonomic expertise: number of mollusc species, % of bivalves, % of polychaetes, abundance of the opportunistic species Corbula gibba, % of amphipods and number of 'typical mollusc species' that are individuated by multivariate analysis. The application of the index in selected stations along a gradient of decreasing disturbance shows that it is simple to use in regular monitoring campaigns and that the results are consistent with environmental quality data in the special conditions of this area subjected to considerable river runoff. The index can be used in addition and as a complement to more widespread indices (such as M-AMBI); a comparison of the two indices performance is discussed.     

Daphne: a new multimetric benthic index for the quality assessment of marine coastal environment in the Northern Adriatic Sea

A new benthic index, named Daphne, is proposed for the Northern Adriatic coastal area, near the Po river delta. It is based on six characteristics of the community that do not require in-depth taxonomic expertise: number of mollusc species, % of bivalves, % of polychaetes, abundance of the opportunistic species Corbula gibba, % of amphipods and number of ‘typical mollusc species’ that are individuated by multivariate analysis. The application of the index in selected stations along a gradient of decreasing disturbance shows that it is simple to use in regular monitoring campaigns and that the results are consistent with environmental quality data in the special conditions of this area subjected to considerable river runoff. The index can be used in addition and as a complement to more widespread indices (such as M-AMBI); a comparison of the two indices performance is discussed.