6. CONCLUSIONS
Scotland water environment is in a relatively good condition. We need to ensure we maintain this position in the face of increasing demand and the uncertainty of climate change. The introduction of the WEWS Act and CAR allows us to develop an integrated approach to managing activities that can adversely affect our water environment, so that current and future generations can enjoy and use it in a sustainable and responsible way.
The effective, risk-based protection of the water environment and the process of setting appropriate environmental objectives rely on a sound scientific understanding of the conditions needed by our aquatic ecosystems. It is therefore important that environmental standards are based on sound science and set at levels which protect the varying needs of aquatic plants and animals in our diverse water environment. This is why we are introducing standards based on up-to-date work by UK experts at this time.
This paper explains how the standards have been developed, how they will support the implementation of the WEWS Act and hence the WFD, and the Executive's policy on how the standards will be used by SEPA and other regulators to protect, and where necessary to improve, our water environment. The paper is supported by Directions to SEPA, which instruct the agency in the use of new environmental standards.
It is important that we get the balance right between the protection of the water environment and enabling its sustainable use. We believe that we have built the appropriate checks and balances into the WEWS Act, CAR and the policy framework we have set for SEPA so as to ensure that this balance can be found and that we plan for the long term, environmentally, socially and economically. The Executive has also published a policy statement on objective-setting in the River Basin Management Plan, which provides more information on basin planning and the process of setting appropriate environmental objectives for Scottish water bodies. This paper is available from the Executive's website.