The classification of the Chemical State and the Ecological State is represented, defined on the basis of the results of the monitoring of the three-year period 2009-2011, for surface water bodies classified in accordance with Ministerial Decree 131/2008. Water bodies are understood as rivers, lakes, transitional waters and stretches of sea. The ecological status classes can correspond to a high, good, sufficient, poor, bad quality level; instead, as regards the chemical state, the classes correspond to a good or bad quality level. The body of water is defined as a "coherent sub-unit of a river basin or river basin district" to which it is possible to assign the environmental objective foreseen by Directive 2000/60/EC.
