The monitoring programme comprises two sub-programmes.

Sub-programme acidification:

The acidification part of the monitoring programme will cover long-term monitoring of acidification effects in freshwater in Norway as a result of atmospheric deposition of long-range transboundary air pollution. The purpose of this monitoring is to provide an overview of acidification effects and geographical distribution of the effects, and changes in the effects over time due to changes in transport and deposition of acidifying substances.

Sub-programme surveillance monitoring:

The purpose of the surveillance monitoring is to evaluate the proposed monitoring design for the surveillance monitoring (c.f. the Water Framework Directive in freshwater in Norway), strengthen data for the determination of reference values for the different quality elements of standard Norwegian lake types and test new methods for status classification of Norwegian lakes in accordance with the Norwegian Guidance of Classification.