Integrated Drought Management Programme in Central and Eastern Europe

Sabina Bokal, IDMP CEE Project manager

Session on climate resilience, integrated drought and flood management

Consulting Partners Meeting Port of Spain, 27 June 2014

„In terms of water resources management and climate change adaptation, countries in Central and Eastern Europe are sensitive to variability and changing precipitation patterns...increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events – increase of droughts.“ (IPCC)

need for regional and national drought policies & plans from reactive to proactive drought management

integrated approach

Drought – reality in Central and Eastern Europe

Partners

National Scientific Center for Global Changes (BG)

Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation (CZ)

10 Country Water Partnerships & 40 organizations

University of Debrecen (HUN)

Vilnius University (LT)

Institute of Ecology and Geography (MD)

Institute of Agricultural and Forest Environment (PL)

Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (PL)

National Meteorological Administration (ROM)

Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute

Soil Science and Conservation Research Institute (SK)

Slovenian Forestry Institute

Biotechnical Faculty (SLO)

Limnos Ltd. (SLO)

Ukrainian Research Institute of Forest and Forest Melioration (UA)

Regional cooperation

National planning processes

Demonstration projects

Capacity Development

Knowledge and awareness

Partnership and

sustainability Increase the capacity of the CEE region to adapt to climatic variability by enhancing resilience to drought.

National planning processes

1. Support the process of preparation of the Drought Management Plans

WP2

to facilitate national governments to incorporate drought management issues into their national programs, policies and plans

o the first step from crisis management to risk management approach o to minimize the adverse impacts on the economy, social life, environment

when drought appears o to be prepared in advance o directly linked to WFD & RBMP („...to develop a DMP as a supplementary

measure, in case of obligatory measures are not sufficient to avoid water scarcity“)

Guidelines support tool

National Consultation Dialogues acceptance at the policy level

1st National consultation

dialogues Case study

existing

Guidelines

Guidelines

Final version

2nd National consultation

dialogues

Guidelines

Draft version plans

June October / November April 2015

WP2

review of the current status

o region specific conditions

o identify the gaps

Stakeholders platform

How to develop the key items of DMPs?

http://www.gwp.org/en/GWP-CEE/IDMPCEE/National-Planning/

WP5

testing innovative solutions for better resilience to drought

o collecting and analyzing data through demonstration projects is the most effective approach and contributes to the enhancement of knowledge and capacity development

o promoting innovative solutions that address critical water security challenges to enhance drought resilience of countries and communities

o focusing on different aspects of drought management and involvement of different sectors outside „water“ sector

o results included into Good Practice Compendium, Guidelines for DMP, GWP Toolbox, ...

2. Demonstration projects

• mitigation measure – to adjust to extreme variability in water quantities (release/use of water during dry periods)

• to improve water retention potential of the landscapes

• small dikes and polders, restoration of wetlands and changes in the forest and agricultural practices, etc.

• Guidelines: to combine drought mitigation, flood protection and biodiversity conservation

• Natural Water Retention Measures Initiative (www. nwrm.eu)

Natural small water retention measures

Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia

Limnos; 2013

Limnos; 2013

Revitalization of the river stream

Retention of the agricultural runoff

• to test the methods for improving water infiltration into the soil profile

• field experiments with mixture of different „techniques“: sub-soiling, with and without tillage, composting tillage, organic fertilizers applications, ... – to improve soil structure

• ¸practical examples of soil water holding capacity regultations + how to include proposals into DMP or already exsisting agro-enviromental plans

Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland

Increasing soil water holding capacity

Muller; Slovakia

Laboratory rain simulator; CZ

Mihelic; Slovenia

Bulgaria, Ukraine, Slovenia, Lithuania

Drought impact on forest ecosystems

• 4 GWP CEE countries with forests area 35% of total regional forests

• forests have significant impact on the water regime of territories

• measures for forest adaptation, mitigation of the negative effects of climate change

o analysis of forest ecosystems – vulnerability zones of the forest vegetation for the present climate (61-90) and for the year 2050 and 2100 (different scenarios: realistic, optimistic, pessimistic)

o measures for adaptation for differetn zones (high level of vulnerability, low level)

Sakar Mountain; Bulgaria, 1999

Identification of agricultural drought characteristics & monitoring method through the application of remote sensing data. Hungary, Slovakia, Romania

Remote sensing agricultural drought monitoring methods

Ukraine, Moldova

Agricultural drought monitoring and

forecasting

Poland, Romania, Lithuania

Drought Risk Management Scheme

Upgrade data assessment and forecasting tools to support drought management and monitoring.

Developing a framework for an integrated operational drought risk management system that can be adjusted to a given drought context.

o Drought Management Center for Southeastern Europe

o Cooperation with River Basin Organizations (ICPDR, ISRBC):

• observer status • River Basin Management Expert Group

o European Drought Observatory (EDO) - platform for exchanging drought information

o Water management and sustainable economic development for Kaliningrad

3. Regional Cooperation WP1

to enhance regional and transboundary cooperation in the field of drought management

to increase the capacities and drought-related knowladge of the key actors

WP6

o 2 regional workshops Slovakia, October 2013; Slovenia, April 2014

o Joint IDMP CEE & DMCSEE workshop and capacity building training

Budapest (HU), October 2014

4. Capacity building

o compendium of existing good practices in drought management o to raise awareness about severe drought conditions through efficient

dissemination mechanisms

Web page

leaflet

Video – in the making

Photo competition

WP7 5. Knowledge & awareness rising

http://www.gwp.org/en/GWP-CEE/IDMPCEE/

Thank you for your attention!