Project EMERCHE:

Regarding effective monitoring for water quality, many new technologies have become available in recent years. Based on chemical analysis alone, often the ‘so what’ question is posed, and hence there is a need for biologically relevant answers to this question. In EMERCHE, we will explore an optimal choice and coupling of available new effect-based monitoring technologies at various levels of biological organization. Next, we will place this suite in the context of both retro- and prospective risk assessment with relevance for both human and ecological health. Within this OneHealth context, we will evaluate all promising effect directed monitoring tools using three sieves: 1) their ability to produce meaningful trigger values, 2) their ability to be predictive for human health effects or ecological effects as tested in mesocosms and 3) their practical usefulness as evaluated in a monitoring programme. The tools that passed these three sieves will be put in an integrative framework which covers all relevant ecological and human health aspects and guidance on their use and interpretation will be provided.