This information will be updated regularly
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3rd Harmoni-CA Forum & Conference - (5-7 April 2006, Osnabrück) |
| Aim of conference |
During this 3rd Harmoni-CA Forum & Conference we will continue the dialogue between operational water managers, water policy makers, researchers and technology providers. Both experts from water management and developers of tools are invited to exchange experiences on their current work, related to river basin management and the implementation of the WFD.
The aim of this meeting is set by the priorities within the WFD framework activities for 2006: the design of monitoring programmes and the involvement of interested parties in the implementation process.
| Focus of the conference |
Due to the innovative character of the WFD, the level of the required support is high and state-of -the-art tools are strongly challenged to meet the policy requirements within a relatively short time-frame. Though the usefulness of tools is often questioned because of, for example, limited data availability and validity or inadequate representation of the relevant management questions, water managers are aware that their tasks might be far more efficiently accomplished by using the appropriate tools. The lack of practical and positive experience with tools also affects the willingness to use and invest in tools by stakeholders and authorities. At the Harmoni-CA/WP5 workshop prior to the conference, a small delegation of water managers will be invited to a training session on how to make use of tools in participatory processes which may not be perfectly designed for their specific management questions. The results of this workshop will provide input for the discussions in the conference. At the 3rd Harmoni-CA Forum & Conference, more information on the possibilities of practical applications of tools and methodologies, will be made available for all participants.
The following questions will guide the discussions:
- How can tools improve the transparency in decision making? How can they support water managers in their present tasks?
- How can different management options be compared in terms of ecological, economic and social impacts?
In the following, the two main focus topics, monitoring and public participation, are outlined.
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* Monitoring |
The WFD requires water managers to base their management plans on a coherent and comprehensive overview of the status of water bodies in their river basin district. Monitoring programmes are necessary in order to describe the present status (and watch for future changes). In most Member States monitoring programmes have already been operational for several years. However, these probably need to be adapted ? or redesigned ? in particular, to facilitate a conceptual understanding of processes within the individual water bodies (or groups of water bodies). In addition the monitoring programmes should provide a basis for the next step in the process of the WFD which is the establishment of the programme of measures.
The conference will open the floor to both (1) water managers experienced in monitoring programmes and (2) providers of tools / models that can be applied to (re-)design the monitoring programmes.
The discussions during the parallel sessions will be focussed on the following questions:
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What were the lessons learnt from the monitoring programmes?
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How did you adapt or develop your monitoring programmes to the requirements of the WFD?
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In your experience/estimation how can the tools:
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support the use of monitoring data for the development of the programme of measures?
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improve the efficiency of monitoring programmes?
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support optimisation of monitoring programmes ?
At the Harmoni-CA/WP2-4 workshop
prior to the conference, a small delegation of specialists will prepare the pro's and con's of different tools, applications on the basis of their experiences and will prepare a synthesis presentation for the conference that will be a major starting point in the discussions.
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* Public Participation- Appropriate involvement of different interested parties |
Integrated river basin management as required by the WFD calls for the active involvement of the different stakeholders. This can be facilitated by the provision of adequate information, transparent decision processes and the participatory design of options. At this conference, we aim to discuss tools that assist in managing the wealth of information as well as supporting learning and decision making processes. These could include tools to provide information to the public, tools to obtain input from the public, tools to manage information, tools for the participatory development and assessment of policy options, and tools that may help structure participatory processes. We plan to present and discuss examples of participatory processes from different basins to illustrate and discuss where tools have helped or could have helped.
During the parallel sessions the following questions will be addressed:
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What have been the lessons learnt form involving the public and/or organized stakeholders in the implementation of the WFD?
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Where could tools provide support in managing participatory processes?
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How do you plan to process the input and results from the written consultation round (part of Art. 14- implementation)?
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How can varying interests be represented in tools for participatory river basin management?
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How can public input be integrated in river basin management?
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How can the ?unorganized? (broad) public be reached?
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Harmoni-CA is a research project supported by the European Commission under the 