RIVERTWIN-

A regional model for integrated water management

in twinned river basins

Introduction

Water resources in the European Community, as well as in developing countries, are under increasing pressure from the continuous growing demand for sufficient quantities of good quality water for all purposes. For example, due to the extremely dry summer in 2003, even in humid regions like Central Europe, the river levels approached critical values, compromising power plants, naval transport and freshwater ecosystems.

Consequently, in 2000 the European Union (EU) Commission adopted the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and in 2003 launched the "EU Global Water Initiative", which proposes to apply the principles of the WFD to other continents. The ultimate goal of the WFD is to reach and maintain a 'good status ' for all of Europe's surface and groundwaters, taking into account ecological and economic aspects.The central feature of the WFD is the use of river basins as the basic unit for all planning and management actions.

Objectives

The "RIVERTWIN" project aims to support the goals of the Global Water Initiative by adjusting, testing and implementing an integrated regional model for the strategic planning of water resources management in twinned river basins. The regional model will assist planning authorities and decision makers to assess the impacts of economic and technological development, and the effects of global climate and land use changes on the long-term availability and quality of water bodies. The model is based on a Geographic Information System, which integrates ecological (water availability and quality) and economic aspects (water demand and water use) of water management in user-friendly software. The project period is from March 1, 2003 to February 28, 2007.

River basins

Three river basins of between 10.000 and 20.000 km2, and with contrasting ecological, social and economic conditions, were selected. Initially, the model will be jointly developed and tested by the project team and the river basin organisation in the German Neckar basin. Then it will be transferred to the Chirchik and Oueme basins in Uzbekistan and the Bénin Republic respectively.

The river basins are located in different climatic regions: Due to the socio-cultural background and the economic and political framework, sustainable water management in the selected basins is challenged by different problems:

Competition for water between municipal, industrial and agricultural requirements
Biological and chemical water quality
Flooding
Salinisation and eutrophisation due to intensive agriculture
Poor water supply and sanitation

Expected Results

RIVERTWIN aims to promote sustainable, integrated water management, balancing economic constraints and ecological requirements, through the following outcomes:

Enhancing the mutual transfer of know-how and technology between European and Third World countries by the twinning of river basins

Providing the respective authorities and decision makers with a planning tool, which combines the economic and ecological aspects of basin-wide water managemen

Developing integrated scenarios of economic growth, land use and climate change in cooperation with stakeholders and potential users in order to assess the implications for water management

Promoting the establishment of regional working groups like the working group for the African IWRM/Transboundary component

Capacity building through training of end users for the transfer of research results to application

Through its holistic basin-wide approach, the project contributes to the EU water initiative for Africa and Newly Independent States and to the achievement of the Millennium Goals defined by the World Summit for Sustainable Development.

Participating Institutions (go to Consortium)

Cooperation

RIVERTWIN cooperates with the following ongoing European projects

TWINBASIN XN (EU-Coordinated Action)

WADE (FloodWater Recharge of Alluvial Aquifers in Dryland Environment)

TWINBAS (EU-Specific targeted research projects)

GLOWA-Danube

GLOWA-IMPETUS

WARMIS

At the global level, the project is expected to provide contributions to the challenge programme "Water and Food" led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and to the EU-EECCA Strategic Partnership on Water and the Global Water Partnership (GWP) regional programmes CACENA and WATAC.

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