This key document by the Environment Agency sets out 10 priority areas for action, including climate change, pressures on water resources, habitat loss, changes in flora and fauna, groundwater contamination, pollution from hazardous substances, nutrient enrichment, poor and deteriorating water quality in some rivers, aesthetic quality, and the pressures from changing lifestyles and increasing urbanisation.
`This report is unique in many ways, not least in setting out the variety of implications climate change has for our freshwater environment. An `action plan' outlined in the report identifies it as one of the key priorities' Dr Jan Pentreath, Environment Agency's Chief Scientist.