The participation in interlaboratory studies and the use of Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) are widely recognised tools for the verification of the accuracy of analytical measurements and they form an integral part of quality control systems used by many laboratories, e.g. in accreditation schemes. As a response to the need to improve the quality of environmental analysis, the European Commission has been active in the past fifteen years, through BCR activity (now renamed Standards, Measurements and Testing Programme) in the organisation of series of interlaboratory studies involving...

Drinking water policies and research are intimately linked. It is thanks to the scientific progress made over the last 25 years in identifying and controlling toxic products in drinking water that regulations have developed in such a way that the protection of public health from waterborne diseases has drastically improved. The integration of research outputs into the policy-making progress requires close cooperation among the scientific and policy communities, which is not always straightforward. Exchanges among scientific and policy-making communities are certainly representing key elements...

Quality assurance (QA) has become an increasingly important topic, as environmental monitoring bodies realize that accuracy of measurements can depend very much on how the measurement is taken. This book will describe methods in light of all of the European, US, and international (ISO) guidelines for QA of water analysis.

It is the third book in the Water Quality Measurement Series, it tackles the growing problem of developing an international understanding for measurement and data collection. The author gives a detailed overview of:
* The purpose of water analysis
*...

This book deals specifically with operationally-defined extraction methods for the determination of "fractions" of elements in soil and sediment matrices.

This work provides an overview of recent studies of the European Commission which has launched collaborative projects to improve state-of-the-art speciation in Europe. It provides a discussion of the techniques used and their performance as applied to real

• Deals with new EC legislation - the Water Framework Directive; the main driver within Europe for groundwater monitoring which addresses integrated water resource management across 27 different countries
• Provides comprehensive approach and guidance on the theoretical and practical aspects for implementing the directive
• Edited by EC representatives involved in the setting up of the framework, along with colleagues in various water institutions who have the task of implementing the legislation
• Part of the Water Quality Measurement Series

Proceedings of a conference on "Integrated River Basin Management under the Water Framework Directive," held at Le Nouveau Si cle, Lille, France on 26th-28th April 2010. The book reviews technical challenges faced by EU Member States, stakeholder organisations and scientists while developing the first River Basin Management Plan under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). It focusses on aspects of multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary integration and how emerging issues such as adaptation to climate change will be considered in the future."