Freshwater ecosystems, already under stress from land-use change and pollution, now face additional pressures from climate change, directly and through 
interaction with other drivers. Euro-limpacs is concerned with the science required to understand and manage the ecological consequences of these interactions. 
It is relevant to the EU WFD and other European and wider international directives and protocols and supports the EU's charter on Sustainable Development. 
  
   
The Project brings together a consortium of leading scientists aiming to integrate river, lake and wetland ecosystem science at the catchment scale. It 
focuses on the key drivers of aquatic ecosystem change (land-use, nutrients, acid deposition and toxic substances) and examines their interactions with 
global, especially climate, change using time-series analysis, space-for-time substitution, palaeolimnology, experiments and process modelling.   
   
It considers these interactions at three critical time-scales:   
   
hours/days, concerned with changes in the magnitude and frequency of extreme events;    
seasons, concerned with changes in ecosystem function and life-cycle strategies of freshwater biota;    
years/decades, concerned with ecological response to environmental pressure, including stress reduction and ecosystem recovery.    
Tool development and dissemination   
A central activity is the development of an innovative toolkit for integrated catchment analysis and modelling to simulate hydrological, hydrochemical 
and ecological processes at the catchment scale for use in assessing the potential impact of global change under different climate and socio-economic scenarios. 
A unified system of ecological indicators for monitoring freshwater ecosystem health, and new methods for defining reference conditions and restoration 
strategies will also be developed. These will take into account the probable impacts of future climate change and the need for a holistic approach to restoration 
based on habitat connectivity.   
   
The Project will also develop other practical tools for management based on a decision support system. This will fully involve users and stakeholders and 
will be demonstrated at study catchments. A comprehensive training programme is fully integrated, and all products and information generated during the 
Project will be fully and freely disseminated.