European lake shores in danger - concepts for a sustainable development

In Europe, when small (> 0.01 km(2)) lakes are considered, approximately 500,000 natural lakes occur. This considerable number points to the fact that lakeshore habitats and ecosystems are of significant importance to the total biodiversity of European landscapes, not only because of their expanse, but also because they are ecotones between land and water, which attract many kinds of wildlife, economical, cultural and recreational uses and human settlement. These very considerable stretches of shore are not currently registered, mapped or evaluated anywhere. Apart from providing habitat, the littoral biocoenosis performs a string of additional functions in the ecosystem, of which several are also of great importance to people, such as self purification, buffer zone, erosion protection and recreation scenery. In particular, the recreational function provides a main economic base for many lake areas and even whole countries in Europe. However, human interests have resulted in lake shore deterioration, such that many European lakes are now bare natural shores or retain only relics of them. Apart from the loss of the ecological functions, this also leads to a substantial loss of economic benefits. This precipitates the need for a responsible management, which can be done only on the base of a sound assessment method and a continuous monitoring of the status of lake shore areas. On a European scale, the European Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC) and the Habitat Directive (92/43/EEC) provide the frame for the assessment and monitoring of the status of littoral habitats of lakes. The WFD, focuses on entire surface water bodies, including their associated wetlands under influence of their natural water-level fluctuations. However, the provided set of quality elements has to be adapted for an approach specific to lake shores. Apart from quality elements indicating the natural spatial pre-requisites, biocoenotic diversity and integrity, and ecosystem function and dynamics, also quality elements representing the human pressure of land use and the social and economic value of the lake shore zone should be included in an integrated lakeshore assessment and monitoring concept. However, the application of such an integrated quality assessment scheme requires an integrated administrative counterpart, just as the WFD requires for water management aspects on a catchment scale. Only by overcoming the splitting of competence among a variety of authorities and planning corporations can an integrated approach to sustainable shore development be translated into action.