a number of criteria to assess indicators quality and adequacy are commonly used to provide guidelines for their selection such as specific measurable achievable relevant and timebound smart relevant accepted credible easy robust racer and clear relevant economic adequate and monitorable cream european commission inspired by these criteria and by the discussions within the oecd water governance initiative some key characteristics for water governance indicators have been identified such as be relevant according to the purpose of the measurement be participative in their development be practical in the production and collection considering resources and time constraints and be realistic in terms of how they will be used figure guiding questions are reported in table suggestions by pilot testers helped to improve the indicator framework and refine the language