Freshwater environmental quality parameters

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Freshwater environmental quality parameters are those chemical, physical or biological parameters that can be used to characterise a freshwater body. Because almost all water bodies are dynamic in their composition, the relevant quality parameters are typically expressed as a range of expected concentrations.

They include the natural and man-made chemical, biological and microbiological characteristics of rivers, lakes and ground-waters, the ways they are measured and the ways that they change. The values or concentrations attributed to such parameters can be used to describe the pollution status of an environment, its biotic status or to predict the likelihood or otherwise of a particular organisms being present. Monitoring of environmental quality parameters is a key activity in managing the environment, restoring polluted environments and anticipating the effects of man-made changes on the environment.