This four-year project, SCALDIT, led by the Flemish region, involves six partners from three Member States. The projects objective is to make an essential contribution to the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in the Scheldt (Escaut) river basin district; the basic principle of the WFD is that transnational cooperation is a sine qua non for achieving a good water status for international river basins. The partners, who cover the whole transnational river basin, aim to carry out: i) a transnational analysis of the characteristics of the Scheldt river basin district; ii) a review of the impact of human activities on the status of surface water and groundwater; iii) an economic analysis of water use in the international river basin district of the Scheldt. This will be the basis for a future international river basin management plan for the Scheldt. The project will bring a transnational dimension to data collection and analysis before seeking to test the Common Implementation Strategy prepared by the European Commission in relation to the WFD. An early warning system will be developed among the partnership to help overcome the risk of accidental flooding in what is a highly populated and urbanised river basin district. Effectively it will be a pilot project for all transnational river basin districts within the NWE Area, the EU and, in effect, eventually the Candidate Countries.