EUROLAKES had the following main objectives:       
1.	Improving strategies concerning long-term management, short-term pollution control, and integrated monitoring regarding deep European lakes and 
their catchment areas:  This will be accomplished by assessing available local experiences, defining appropriate model studies and integrating results 
for planning priorities, and environmental and socio-economic benefits in the investigation sites selected.      
      
2.	Describing the seasonal and intra-annual dynamics and quantifying of key processes and parameters in deep European lakes such as key parameters from 
both nutrient pathways, i.e. dissolved and particulate organic carbon and heterotrophic bacteria for the „organic pathway“ and phosphate, nitrate and phytoplanktonic 
cells for the „mineral pathway“ and zooplankton as the integrative level of both preceding pathways of matter and energy fluxes.      
      
3.	Establishing additional ecological criteria to substantiate water and ecosystem quality targets for the management and policies in deep lakes and 
their surroundings concentrating on issues like annual best zooplankton quality or the wave impact on bank erosion/ reed destruction.      
      
4.	Generalisation of a combined water quality lake/catchment management model to assess the impact of changing uses where main factors investigated will 
be water intakes, land use, and tourism.      
        
5.	Recommendations to support European legislation and especially the EU Water Framework Directive. The recommendations will consider the specific 
problems and circumstances of integrated water management of deep lakes in connection with their respective catchment areas. 
            

To evaluate the implementation conditions of the recent European water policy the environmental aspects, water characterisation and the social, policy 
and economic aspects were considered of the five case studies Lac du Bourget, Bodensee, Loch Lomond, Lake Längelmävesi-Roine and Lac Léman.       
      
Key Recommendations to EU legislation have been summarized for the topics 'Ecological Criteria', 'Key Processes', 'Strategies' and 'Trans-boundary 
large Deep lakes'.      
      
The specific physico-chemical and biological characteristics of such lakes and the 'Key Processes” that drive their hydrodynamics and ecological functioning 
have been characterized.      
      
Within the deliverable “Strategies”, good examples of managerial and monitoring strategies of Loch Lomond, Lake Constance and Lac Léman are described. 
     
      
Furthermore ecological monitoring requirements for the improvement of environmental indicators and meta-indicators in relation to the monitoring and 
assessment of large, deep lakes and their catchments have been summarized.      
      
Within the EUROLAKES project an integrated water resource management tool for lakes managers, decision makers and possibly stakeholders has been provided. 
            

One major aim of this project was the qualitative and quantitative identification of conflicting uses of the lakes and the lakes‘ basins where undoubtedly 
the drinking water aspect is of primary but not exclusive importance. The EUROLAKES project contained 38 work packages which resulted in the respective deliverables. 
They can be downloaded from the Eurolakes web page.      
The key-reports (generic) concern the topics:      
- First Analysis of Legislation      
- Policy Briefs of Key Recommendations to EU legislation      
- Key Processes (physico chemical and biological characteristics)      
- Improved Strategies      
- Ecological Criteria      
- System Definition      
The other public available reports concern the topics:      
- Current EU Regulations      
- Site Characterisation      
- Impact of Contaminants      
- Technical Considerations      
- Microbial Diversity Studies      
- Wave impact on shores and reed studies      
- Realistic residence times studies      
- Lake Stratification Studies      
- Carbon to Chlorophyll-a ratio      
- Renewal of constituents by convection      
- Internal seiche mixing study      
- River plume study      
- Primary elements in food chain