At the turn of this new century, countries of Europe have embraced a common strategy for the management of their water resources through the adoption of the EU Water Framework Directive roadmap. This brings a unique opportunity for building a common vision aimed at a sustainable usage of water and aquatic ecosystems which reconciles all natural processes with human activities influencing the water cycle.

It is the aim of the conference to discuss methods, criteria and procedures which are implemented for the actual delivery of sustainable management at water basin level with particular emphasis on the interfaces which are needed in order to bundle together the water sciences and their socio-economic counterparts