“The Water Framework Directive poses the need to maintain a good natural biological community in all the aquatic ecosystems as the priority objective to be reached.”

At this time, the concept of water quality, and more generally of environmental quality, is a topical problem of growing interest in Europe. It is my opinion that the European Water Framework Directive represents a revolution on this issue. Moreover, it represents a big challenge for the scientific community and also for decision-making people. The former must produce new tools for studying and classifying the quality of aquatic biological communities, the latter must apply them. And the deadline for getting some results is relatively close. Therefore, I think that this paper could be of interest not only to the scientific community, but also to stakeholders involved in management and regulation issues.

  Does it describe a new discovery, methodology, or synthesis of knowledge?

Our review paper is a synthesis of the present state-of-the-art and proposes some suggestions for using available knowledge within a different paradigm and also using new points-of-view.

  Would you summarize the significance of your paper in layman’s terms?

The old concepts of environmental quality were substantially anthropocentric and viewed the environment as a resource to be exploited. So, using these concepts, environmental quality would require protection in order to better exploit the resources.

The European Water Framework Directive poses the need to maintain a good natural biological community in all aquatic ecosystems as the primary objective to be reached. As a consequence, the environment is not considered as a resource to be exploited by humans, but instead as an environmental good that must be protected for its intrinsic value.

It follows that there is a need to develop new tools for describing and classifying the quality of ecosystems, more ecologically-based than traditional tools, which were substantially based on a physical-chemical description of the state of ecosystems.

  How did you become involved in this research and were any particular problems encountered along the way?

Marco Vighi: Studying environmental quality has been my research topic for more than 35 years. I am familiar with the scientific aspects of these issues, as well as with the management and regulatory ones. Part of this experience derives from my long activity as a member of several international organizations, such as the scientific committees of the European Commission. Therefore, the paper can be considered as a natural outcome of my activity.

  Where do you see your research leading in the future?

Marco Vighi: My major field of research is Ecotoxicology. For many years I have believed that there is a need for more ecology in Ecotoxicology. In other words, there is a need for a better understanding of what really happens in natural ecosystems—for a sounder extrapolation of laboratory results to natural biological communities—and this will be the major objective of my research in the future.

  Are there any social or political implications for your research?

Obviously, there are. A key objective of any research in the fields of Ecotoxicology and Applied Ecology is to provide scientifically sound information for the implementation of decision-making procedures and of regulation for the protection of the environment. The European Water Framework Directive is the result of the progress of these kinds of research during the last few decades.