The SOLUTIONS project: Challenges and responses for present and future emerging pollutants in land and water resources management

“SOLUTIONS (2013 to 2018) is a European Union Seventh Framework Programme Project (EU-FP7). The project
aims to deliver a conceptual framework to support the evidence-based development of environmental policies
with regard to water quality. SOLUTIONS will develop the tools for the identification, prioritisation and assessment
of thosewater contaminants that may pose a risk to ecosystems and human health. To this end, a newgeneration
of chemical and effect-based monitoring tools is developed and integrated with a full set of exposure,
effect and risk assessment models. SOLUTIONS attempts to address legacy, present and future contamination
by integrating monitoring and modelling based approaches with scenarios on future developments in society,
economy and technology and thus in contamination. The project follows a solutions-oriented approach by addressing
major problems of water and chemicals management and by assessing abatement options.
SOLUTIONS takes advantage of the access to the infrastructure necessary to investigate the large basins of the
Danube and Rhine as well as relevant Mediterranean basins as case studies, and puts major efforts on stakeholder
dialogue and support. Particularly, the EUWater Framework Directive (WFD) Common Implementation Strategy
(CIS) working groups, International River Commissions, and water works associations are directly supported
with consistent guidance for the early detection, identification, prioritisation, and abatement of chemicals in
the water cycle. SOLUTIONS will give a specific emphasis on concepts and tools for the impact and risk assessment
of complex mixtures of emerging pollutants, their metabolites and transformation products. Analytical
and effect-based screening tools will be applied together with ecological assessment tools for the identification
of toxicants and their impacts. The SOLUTIONS approach is expected to provide transparent and evidencebased
candidates or River Basin Specific Pollutants in the case study basins and to assist future review of priority
pollutants under the WFD as well as potential abatement options.”
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
(Citaat: Brack, W., Altenburger, R., et al. – The SOLUTIONS project; Challenges and responses for present and future emerging pollutants in land and water resources management – Science of the Total Environment 503-504(2015)22-31)