“River salinisation is a widespread but poorly documented challenge across Europe” (JRC study)

“Despite being a widespread global phenomenon, most studies on freshwater salinisation have been conducted on local and regional scales, with larger scales rarely addressed”, says a study published in Nature Communications on 20 August 2026, carried out with researchers from the Joint Research Centre (JRC).

The study, "Rivers of salt: the extent of salinisation in European running waters," provides the first pan-European, network-based assessment of freshwater salinisation, using river-reach scale data and random forest modelling to estimate what conductivity levels would look like in the absence of human influence, then comparing that baseline against observed conditions.

One of the study's key findings is that salinity already exceeds safe-use thresholds in parts of the network: about 1…