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Stakeholders play a vital role in BeWater and their active participation in the iterative process is key to the project's success. Here Dr. Steven Libbrecht describes the stakeholder identification process for the four Case Study River Basins and the advantages and challenges of the participatory approach employed by the project.
Dr. Libbrecht is a senior consultant in PROSPEX and WP3 Leader in the BeWater Project. He is specialised in corporate development and has wide experience in designing and facilitating participative group processes to assist robust decision-making in multi-stakeholder settings.
BeWater was represented at the second edition of the Barcelona Citizen Science Day, which took place in Barcelona, Spain on 16 April 2015. The meeting is part of NOVUM (Barcelona Science, Technology and Innovation Festival) organised by the Direction of Creativity and Innovation, Barcelona Culture Institute (Barcelona City Council). Participants included researchers, students, science communicators, civic actors and decision makers as well as citizens interested in citizen science.
BeWater Project actively involves stakeholders in the Vipava river basin as well as in the other three pilot river basins (Spain, Cyprus, Tunisia). Through participatory processes, interested society is involved into dialogue about water use and water management in the Vipava river basin to design joint plans for adaptation to climate change in their region.
Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia together with Prospex from Belgium and EFIMED from Spain organized the second BeWater stakeholder workshop. The workshop took place on 27th May 2015 on the premises of the regional Chamber of Craft and Small Business in Ajdovščina. It was attended by 12 stakeholders from different sectors, united by joint concern for the Vipava river basin. A short introductory welcome by Mr. David Bratož, the Director of Development Agency ROD Ajdovščina, was followed by brief presentation of the stakeholders and presentation of the current status of the BeWater project.
The second BeWater stakeholders’ workshop was held in Yasmine Hammamet (Tunisia) on June 4th 2015, and was attended by 24 stakeholders, four facilitators from Prospex, one representative from EFIMED, one observer from Ecologic and the INRGREF team.
The main objectives of this workshop were to bring the Rmel basin stakeholders together in order to discuss some aspects of the basin (40% are former participants and 60% are new identified partners), to depict results from the first stakeholder workshop (2014), to select used criteria to evaluate the water management options (WMOs), and to discuss and evaluate the WMOs.
Climate change is affecting our environment and our water resources. Research and dialogue are needed to identify how to adapt to longer droughts, higher temperatures and more intense rain storms. A participatory workshop at The Cyprus Institute engaged water managers, agricultural and environmental officials, forest researchers, landscape planners, hydrologists, economists and educators in the discussion.
The participants identified the forest along the slopes of the Troodos, the river and its natural vegetation, and runoff in the urban areas of Nicosia as key concerns for climate change adaptation. George Demetriou from the Water Board of Nicosia highlighted the important role of “water consciousness” for climate change adaptation.
A diverse group of stakeholders took part in a dynamic workshop to evaluate the best options to manage water in the Tordera River Basin in a more sustainable and adaptive way. The 17 participants included researchers, managers, farmers and other citizens who live and work in the Basin.
The meeting took place in Santa Maria de Palautordera on 17 June 2015. Key options identified included adaptive forest management, the implementation of environmental flows and better citizen participation spaces.
In order to engage wider society, BeWater Awareness Campaigns are being held in the four Case Study River Basins. Zaghouan (Tunisia) host the last awareness campaign and FCM workshop, related to the Rmel River Basin, where the following video was produced.
Hakan Djuma delivered the BeWater oral and poster presentation in the session: "Hydrology & Society: Transdisciplinary approaches to hydrology and water resources management."
The abstract of the presentation "Adapting to Climate Change or to Stakeholders?" is available. Following the presentations, the Hydrology & Society session hosted a lively debate about the importance of stakeholders.
The presentation of BeWater Project, the status of the Vipava River and sustainable water management practices was attended by 30 students of 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade, course Nature Protection Technician. Following the presentation, the IWRS representatives, the students and the teachers visited the Vipava River Basin.
Europe for Business (EFB) representatives attended the 2nd European Innovation Partnership Water Conference on behalf of BeWater project. Over 400 attendees participated in enlightening discussions on connecting water innovation demand and supply, learned about the activities of 25 EIP Water Action Groups, identified opportunities for near future collaborations and helped shape European water innovation policy.
The FP4BATIW project is organising a workshop "Water use in the Mediterranean basin considering nexus approach conference" in Amman, Jordan, on 26 April 2015. The conference will be attended by over 300 policy-makers, representatives from the world of water management, end-users, and international professional organisations from Jordan and European countries.
The workshop seeks to consolidate the existing synergies between researchers, industry and civil society in Europe and the Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPC) to implement the best available technologies for water treatment.
Rivers: Engaging, Supporting and Transferring knOwledge on River Restoration (RESTORE) - including a ‘Laymans Report’ River restoration in Europe: the art of the possible - is recommended reading as LIFE+ proposals are currently being developed for the 2015 call.
RESTORE is a LIFE+ project that ran from 2010 to 2013. It launched with six European partners and the objective of making connections between river restoration professionals in Europe and joining existing national efforts on river restoration. Research carried out prior to RESTORE had shown that the main problem faced by river restoration professionals is often not a lack of expertise but a lack of access to shared experiences and knowledge. To address this issue, RESTORE worked to share and promote information on the best and most effective means of carrying out river restoration in Europe.
The implementation of the 2000 Water Framework Directive (WFD) relies on Member States taking a range of cost-effective measures in a transparent and participatory way. Member States must summarise these measures (included in their ‘programmes of measures’ or PoMs) in their river basin management plans (RBMPs), which are updated every six years. In 2012, the Commission published its assessment of the RBMPs available at that time.
On the occasion of the World Water Day, celebrated on March 22nd, the Water Supply Department of Cyprus organized the event “Water: drops of life”. The event was part of a water consciousness campaign, aiming to raise awareness about water related issues in Cyprus among society.
“BeWater Project: Science and society co-creating four Mediterranean River Adaptation Plans to face water scarcity” will be presented by Coordinator, Anabel Sánchez (CREAF) during the session "Governance of Drought Adaptation in Europe: Different Regions, same Challenges?" chaired by Consortium partners ECOLOGIC. The Conference will take place from 12 - 14 May in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Stakeholders play a vital role in BeWater and their active participation in the iterative process is key to the project's success. Here Dr. Steven Libbrecht describes the stakeholder identification process for the four Case Study River Basins and the advantages and challenges of the participatory approach employed by the project.
On the occasion of the World Water Day, celebrated on March 22nd, the 