On 22 December 2009 the Dutch Water Act came into force. Since then the remediation section of the Dutch Soil Protection Act is not applicable to sediments anymore. With this change, sediment quality in itself is no longer an objective as was the case under the Dutch Soil Protection Act. Sediment management is now regulated starting from the water system management, in which sediment is considered an integral part of the water system.

In the Dutch Implementation Act regarding the Water Act, the development of an assessment framework is announced with which one can determine whether the sediment impedes the realization of a certain chemical and ecological quality, as part of the regional quality as a whole (objectives defined in the regional planning process). This Guidance Document is the implementation of this assessment framework.