The wider objective of this project was to introduce the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Turkey. The key issues of the project were:

• The development of institutional co-operation (inter ministerial and between the ministries and their specialized regional agencies); 
• Defining river basin districts; 
• The implementation of an integrated river basin management plan (RBMP) for a pilot region; 
• Training workshops at national as well as regional level in the pilot region. The workshops focused on technical issues as well as on providing insight in the public participation and communication requirements of the WFD.

ECORYS focused on:

• Introducing horizontal and vertical co-operation amongst the involved parties;
• Implementing (together with staff of regional environmental and water management authorities) the economic analysis in the pilot Water Management Plan (WMP) commensurate with WFD principles (Büyük Menderes River Basin);
• Providing the economic parts of a manual, providing training and a contribution to a study tour to transfer the relevant knowledge.