Goals and indicators

Ecological status of water bodies

Related goal

The environment will be managed in a way that maintains the diversity of habitats and landscape types and ensures that there are viable populations of naturally-occurring species: this will ensure that biological diversity can continue to evolve.

Are we moving in the right direction?

The ecological status of most water bodies in Norway are considered to be “clearly not at risk”. This is particularly true in the more sparsely populated northern, central and western parts of the country. The situation is less satisfactory in the eastern part of the country, particularly in coastal waters. None of the coastal water bodies in this region have been placed in the category “clearly not at risk”.

The figures abowe are based on a survey carried out in connection with the introduction of the EU Water Framework Directive in Norway. Only preliminary results are available, and it is therefore likely that a number of coastal water bodies will be moved to a different category.

If a water body is said to be “clearly not at risk”, this means that it shows little change from normal quality under undisturbed conditions. This has been determined by assessing the anthropogenic pressures on fish (for freshwater bodies only), phytoplankton, plants and benthic animals.

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