peer reviewed ; The achievement of good status in groundwater bodies involves meeting a series of conditions, which are defined in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and, in the case of good chemical status, are given further detail in the Groundwater Directive (GWD). One of these conditions is to ensure that groundwater inputs to associated surface waters do not result in failure to meet the environmental objectives of those waters or result in significant diminution in status/ecological or chemical quality of those waters. GWAAE (Groundwater Associated Aquatic Ecosystems) are those surface water bodies (SWBs), including rivers, standing waters and transitional waters where the surface water ecology and hydrology is dependent on contributions from groundwater in order to meet their environmental objectives under the WFD. These environmental objectives may vary, and therefore the associated environmental quality standards (EQS) or flow/level requirements of GWAAEs may differ between high status and good status SWBs. As noted in the Blueprint for Water, analysis of the first River Basin Management Plans has shown that Member States (MS) have experienced difficulties in understanding the interactions between groundwater and surface water and undertaking the necessary status assessments. This was highlighted in a survey carried out by Working Group Groundwater (WGGW) in 2014/15, which indicated that only half of the MS had assessed quantitative interactions and very few had addressed chemical pressures, including the derivation of threshold values (TVs) that were appropriate to the WFD objectives for GWAAEs. This report aims to further knowledge on what GWAAE are, how they are aligned to WFD processes, and support Member States to properly include the needs of these ecosystems in river basin management planning. The report clarifies the categories of GWAAE and their relative dependence on groundwater and collates current available knowledge and experience via a number of examples and case studies. Terminology and ...