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Developing plans to adapt to climate change in the Pedieos River Basin

Thursday, 17 March 2016 Posted in News, BeWater News, Pedieos Society, Cyprus

Climate change is affecting the environment and water resources in the Pedieos River Basin. Plans are needed on how to adapt the management of the river basin and its water resources to changing future conditions.

 

Scientists from the The Cyprus Institute are involved in the BeWater project and have organised several workshops to discuss water management in the context of global change for the Pedieos river basin. In a first workshop, the participants identified challenges related to water management and discussed options to deal with these challenges. In a second workshop, no less than 30 options were refined and evaluated. Preferred options were the restoration and maintenance of the river bed, the implementation of good agricultural practices, and the dynamic management of the water of the Tamassos dam.

 

On Friday 18 March, a third participatory workshop will be organised at the premises of the Cyprus Institute, in close cooperation with Ecologic Institute. Participants of the workshops will include water managers, agricultural and environmental officials, forest researchers, landscape planners, hydrologists, economists and teachers. The workshop will focus on the development of a Pedieos River Basin Adaptation Plan. The workshop will consist of interactive sessions to identify how options identified in the previous workshops can be combined and whether there are potential synergies and conflicts between them. Furthermore, the workshop will explore how the options can be eventually implemented in practice.


Similar workshops are carried out in three other river basins in the Mediterranean area, located in Slovenia, Spain and Tunisia. The four river basins cover different environmental and socio-economic settings within the Mediterranean area.

 

The BeWater Project receives funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration. The project aims to develop River Basin Adaptation plans in the Mediterranean through citizen participation. For more information, please contact Elias Giannakis.