Regional administration of lake restoration initiatives
The economic values of clean and safe water are well established. Lakes, ponds and reservoirs can provide water for drinking, irrigation, recreation, fish, natural and cultural values and other ecosystem services. Domestic and national tourism in lake districts are often of high local and regional economical importance. However, in spite of remarkable investments in wastewater treatment, the quality of many waters is still under pressure of external loading from agriculture and other diffuse sources. These are tackled in the River Basin Management Plans of the Water Framework Directive. Internal loading from sediments and changes in food-web structure also affect the water quality and these problems can be tackled by management and restoration measures in the lakes. The Interreg IIIC project LakePromo in 2004-2007 presented an overview of restoration practices. However, in planning concrete measures there is also need to review the experiences of case studies in more detail
Lake-Admin aims to improve the effectiveness of regional development policies related to water management, specially in the field of lake, pond and reservoir restoration and management;

1. Share and transfer of good water management practices for better water quality and improved usability
2. Mainstream programmes in each participating regions by developing tangible Implementation Plans which help to adopt good practices in preparing Operational Programmes. 
3. Compile good practices and European Lake Restoration Archive of reality-examples into open access guidance material.
4. Recognize the European dimension and expand project mission beyond partner regions considering the new lake standards set by the Water Framework Directive.
For most EU states environmental standards for lakes within WFD are new and the obligations to protect or restore are a new and significant challenge. To improve status of lakes in the given time-scales requires us to share all our existing knowledge and experience. Lake-Admin offers an additional, locally focused route to WFD compliance. Ten partners in cooperation with the Managing Authorities and intermediate bodies from nine countries establish a firm basis and wide geographical coverage to capitalize good practices to have truly European-wide added value. Both the leading regions in lake restoration expertise (like Finland, Denmark, Czech, Hungary) and areas with less-experience and often scarcity of fresh water (like Malta, Greece, Italy) are represented. All participating regions have detected lakes as important elements in their regional development policies. In Lake-Admin they will transfer the identified good practices to regional Implementation Plans.