Introducing River Modelling in the Implementation of the DPSIR Scheme of the Water Framework Directive

In Italy the National Environmental Protection Agency (ANPA) is about to adopt the Drivers- Pressures-States-Impacts-Responses (DPSIR) model introduced by the EC Water Framework Directive (WFD). This paper reassess the current definitions of Indicators in the light of the WFD, proposes the design of modular procedures and computational practices to determine the most significant State indicators, integrates the QUAL2E water quality model for the generation of quality data to assess differing DPSIR scenarios, with the final aim to produce an integrated software, partly based on Excel and partly on QUAL2E, whereby current quality data can be used to generate quality scenarios and apply the DPSIR model. The proposed method is applied the Arno river catchment.