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Climate change and other pressures are affecting the environment and water resources in the Tordera 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 Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) are involved in the BeWater project and have organised several workshops to discuss water management in the context of global change for the Tordera 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 and a consultation, no less than 33 options were refined and evaluated. Preferred options were establishing ecological flows and recovery of groundwater levels, access and availability of information, the involvement and commitment of citizens and agreements for adaptive forest management.

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هذا المقال باللغة العربية

Climate change and other pressures are affecting the environment and water resources in the Rmel 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 National Research Institute for Rural Engineering Water and Forestry (INRGREF)are involved in the BeWater project and have organised several workshops to discuss water management in the context of global change for the Rmel 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 and a consultation, no less than 19 options were refined and evaluated. Preferred options were Consolidation of existing water and soil conservation techniques, use of water irrigation technologies and awareness campaign and learning on natural resources management.

Upon finalisation of the campaign ÔVI (eau=vie / water=life) that has been running throughout February and March in primary schools around Tunisia to raise awareness on water scarcity and the importance of water saving, the Global Water Partnership - Mediterranean (GWP-Med) celebrated the World Water Day by organising a workshop on “Water, Youth and Employment” on Saturday, 19 March 2016, in Hammamet.

The workshop, as well as the whole campaign itself, have been held in cooperation with the partner organisation International Association of Lions Clubs, within the framework of GWP’s “Youth for Water and Climate” Initiative, the BeWater Project and their joint efforts in raising the Tunisian youth's voice on water resources management.

Stakeholders in the Rmel river basin discussed water management options during a stakeholder event on 7 October 2015. Watch the video and hear what they think about the BeWater approach.

Članek v slovenščini

Climate change and other pressures are affecting the environment and water resources in the Vipava 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 Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia are involved in the BeWater project and have organised several workshops to discuss water management in the context of global change for the Vipava 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 and an open consultation, no less than 20 options were refined and evaluated. Preferred options were the creation of inter-municipal expert working group for the Vipava river basin, raising awareness of different groups of stakeholders and construction of water reservoirs on the watercourses in the upper part of the Vipava river basin.

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.

To tackle climate change and other challenges in the Rmel river basin, stakeholders discussed water management options during a BeWater stakeholder event. Fifty stakeholders participated in the event, which took place on 7 October 2015. Watch the video to get an impression of the event. 

BeWater raises awareness in Tunisian primary schools on water scarcity and the importance of water saving 

As a follow-up to its involvement with youth stakeholders in the Rmel River Basin in the Tunisian Province of Zaghouan, the BeWater partners GWP-Med and INRGREF, in cooperation with the NGO The Lions' Club, are developing a national campaign in Tunisian primary schools to raise awareness on water scarcity and the importance of water saving.

The campaign will take place during the month of February 2016 and is called ÔVI (eau = water, vie = life). It takes place within the framework of the activity La Jeunesse Francophone pour l'eau (Francophone Youth for Water).

The campaign is taking place as a follow-up action to the national training for Tunisian NGOs that are active in water resources management, which was held on 13-14 November 2015.

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Forests. On each International Day of Forests, several events are organised to raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests, and trees outside forests, for the benefit of current and future generations.

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The first BeWater Policy Brief highlights the need to develop river basin adaptation plans to deal with climate change and the role of local stakeholders to develop successful adaptation strategies. It is available for download in English, Catalan, French, Arabic, and Slovenian.

In the Mediterranean region, water resources are expected to be severely impacted by climate change. The resulting decrease in water supplies needs to be considered to ensure the sustainable supply and use of high quality water resources in the future. Current water management initiatives give insufficient consideration to climate change at the river basin level.

The BeWater project addresses this gap and is developing adaptation plans to pro-actively respond to water-related global challenges at the river basin level through a dialogue between science and society. The first BeWater Policy Brief highlights the role of local stakeholders to develop successful adaptation strategies, which must be applicable across multiple policy sectors.

The fourth edition of BeWater News brings you the outcomes of the stakeholder events that took place in each Case Study River Basin and the third General Meeting in Barcelona.

In this issue, you will also find news on water management options, a policy analysis tool, photo galleries, other news and upcoming events.

BeWater News, Edition 4, January 2016

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Outcomes of the participatory process to involve society in identifying options to manage water resources in the face of global change were vividly discussed at the BeWater General Meeting held in Barcelona, Spain, from 4-6 November 2015. The BeWater project partners and several stakeholders gathered to take stock of all work that has been done during the first two years and to agree on the next steps to develop adaptation plans for four case study river basins.

An important part of the meeting was dedicated to present and discuss the outcomes of the recent stakeholder workshops and the water management options that were formulated for the four case study river basins Pedieos (Cyprus), Rmel (Tunisia), Tordera (Spain) and Vipava (Slovenia). PROSPEX and EFI provided an overview of all steps in the participatory process, through which a total of 102 water management options were identified and evaluated. INRGREF, CyI, CREAF and IzVRS provided detailed insights on the options and their potential impacts on each of the river basins.

In the frame work of the BeWater activities, an awareness campaign was held at Jradou elementary school (Tunisia) on 16 December 2015.

The event was organised by the National Research Institute for Rural Engineering Water and Forestry (INRGREF). It was attended by all the pupils of the school and representatives from the Regional Commissariat of Education, Zaghouan Municipality, Young Leaders Council Association and Zero Waste Association.

The principle of the school Mr. Adel Miled who was assisted with teachers, have facilitated the communication between children and the BeWater team.

The Mediterranean is a region where changes in climatic conditions are expected to severely impact water resources. In order to adapt to global change impacts on Mediterranean water resources, BeWater project partners developed an iterative, bottom-up approach, ensuring that stakeholders from local societies play an active role in developing appropriate strategies for the management of their river basins. Together, local stakeholders and BeWater project partners formulated and evaluated no less than 102 water management options.

As part of our participatory approach, we engaged with local stakeholders from the four BeWater case study river basins in Cyprus (Pedieos), Slovenia (Vipava) Spain (Tordera) and Tunisia (Rmel). They expressed their views and input during the process of formulating and evaluating options for future water management. At key moments throughout the project, they discussed and evaluated the outcomes. In each of the basins, stakeholders took part in workshops and individual consultations.

Global change covers different policy sectors and requires a clear understanding of the inter-linkages, overlaps and inconsistencies between policies. To analyse policies in a standardised manner, the BeWater Policy Watch developed and piloted tools to facilitate the implementation of the BeWater policy analysis. The tools are built on common keywords and indicators to facilitate the comparison of policies.

Within BeWater a comparative analysis is made of local water policies and other sector policies which address global and climate change at the river basin scale. In order to conduct such an analysis, individual policy instruments, e.g. a regulation, a directive, a decree or an over-arching policy, must be analysed for their content before comparisons between instruments and sectors can be performed. The BeWater Policy Watch previously initiated a process of building a Policy Review tool which consisted of a Guidance Note for researchers to identify important elements within individual policy implements relevant to the BeWater Project. It was quickly found a standardised approach was needed to facilitate the analysis. For that purpose, a Policy Analysis tool was developed by the BeWater partners INRGREF, CyI, CREAF and IzVRS, under guidance of Deep Blue Consultants.