European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC-ICM)

The European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC/ICM) is an international consortium brought together to support the European Environment Agency (EEA) in its mission to provide timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-makers and the public on the development and implementation of sound environmental policies in the European Union and other EEA member countries.

Since 2014, the UFZ is leading the European Topic Centre for Inland, Coastal and Marine Waters, thus pooling the EU's expertise in monitoring and assessing European water resources.

In the period 2014-2018, the international consortium of the ETC/ICM consisted of 17 research institutions, organisations and national offices. For the period 2019-2021, 15 institutions work together to consolidate data on the use and status of water resources and to evaluate them. The ETC/ICM also supports the European Environment Agency in developing indicators to prepare policy decisions and to monitor the success of European targets. In addition, the ETC/ICM investigates how the water balance reacts to climate change and in particular to extreme events.