![]() |
![]() |
Agenda of the 2nd Western Regional Workshop
Co-organised by Actéon & AMEC
Funded by EC
Regional workshop
Natural Water Retention Measures (NWRM): How can catchment management be adapted to widen the potential for NWRMs?
Strasbourg, July 1st-2nd 2014
ENGEES – Ecole Nationale du Génie de l’Eau et de l’Environnement de Strasbourg
1 Quai Koch, Strasbourg
Programme concept
Background
NWRMs provide multiple benefits, which go well beyond water retention itself and include, for example, water quality improvement, biodiversity improvement, enhancement of soil features, and better ecosystem adaptation capacity to climate change and so on. In addition, NWRMs are multi-dimensional, as they include both interventions on rivers but also on floodplains and riparian areas throughout a catchment.
As highlighted during the first round of Regional Workshops, these features of NWRMs call for a catchment-based, multidimensional approach, which goes beyond water and flood management and embraces biodiversity/habitat management and climate change adaptation strategies. At the policy level, this implies that the links between NWRM implementation and all relevant EU Directives need to be strengthened.
At present, NWRMs are directly linked to the implementation of the Flood Directive, and in a very few cases was the Water Framework Directive the main driver for implementation. This Directive, in fact, does not give much direct attention to riparian issues, but rather focuses on the water body as a central concept, and this might be hindering a good approach to NWRMs. Overall, an explicit link with the WFD needs to be made. Furthermore, the multi-dimensional character of NWRMs also calls for a full integration not only of FD and WFD, but also of the Bird and the Habitat Directives and other relevant Directives, and this suggests that a more complex approach would be needed. An integration of all relevant EU Directives could also help addressing current institutional challenges.
Main focus of the 2nd Western Workshop
To address this challenge, the second Western Regional Workshop in the frame of the NWRM initiative will be dedicated to discussions on how to adapt catchment management for widening the potential of NWRMs. The main discussion topics will include:
- Current policy and planning frameworks for NWRM implementation;
- Existing links between NWRM implementation and the WFD;
- Experiences with NWRMs implementation in biodiversity management and climate change adaptation;
- Financing: current financing frameworks; opportunities and challenges for diversifying financing sources in an integrated catchment-wide perspective;
- Integrated (interconnected) planning at the catchment level: opportunities and challenges for strengthening integration;
- Opportunities and challenges for strengthening the links between NWRM implementation and implementation of the relevant EU Directives (WFD, FD, Habitats/Bird Directives, Climate Change Adaptation Strategy).
Format
The workshop will be highly interactive, and structured around presentations, round table discussions and group sessions to work on specific case studies. A site visit, which at the moment is still under definition and thus not included in the agenda, might be added to the programme later on; in this case, it will be scheduled in the morning of the first day.
Translation from and to French (and possibly German) will be provided during all sessions.
Participants
The workshop will host around 40 participants, excluding attendees from the NWRM consortium.
Based on the proposed main theme, the workshop will target in preference water catchment managers from the different countries.
However, to ensure that different perspectives and fields of expertise are well represented in discussions and group working session, other policy makers and stakeholders will also be invited, namely:
- Other national and local policy makers/ planners involved in flood protection or biodiversity management
- NGos involved in catchment management
- Organisations involved in the management of large scale Habitats/Natura 2000
- People dealing with climate change adaptation at regional/river basin district scale
- It can still be good to have few practitioners involved
- Some MS representatives from the WG PoM?
9:00 |
Registration for the site visit |
9:30 |
Site visit Integrated Rhine Programme - Polder Altenheim: The Polder provides a total retention capacity of about 17,6 Mio. m3. Using ecological flooding natural flood plains have been developed at the site Guidance: Ulrike Pfarr - Adiministration of Baden Wurttenberg |
Ca. 13:00 |
Registration and light lunch |
13:30 |
Opening: introduction to the objectives of the workshop and agenda Pierre Strosser, ACTeon Heather Williams, AMEC |
Session 1: NWRM and catchment management – framing main concepts and issues Chair: Nick Jarrit, AMEC |
|
10 minutes |
Keynote 1 – NWRM features: Benoît Fribourg-Blanc, OIEAU |
10 minutes |
Keynote 2 – key steps in the design and implementation of NWRMs: Pierre Strosser, ACTeon |
10 minutes |
Keynote 3 – the multiple dimension of NWRMs: Carlos Mario Gomez, IMDEA |
10 minutes |
Keynote 4 – the policy context: Thomas Borchers, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety |
Ca. 14:40 |
Session 2: the linkages between NWRMs and the EU policy framework Chair: Pierre Strosser, ACTeon |
15 minutes each + 20 minutes discussion
|
NWRM implementation in the existing policy frameworks “Real life” experiences from water managers and other planners Stephanie Natho, German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) Marie Pénélope Guillet, SYMASOL Maarten Jans, Department of Waterways and the Sea Canal (W&Z) Discussion |
Ca. 16:15 |
Round table discussion: implementing NWRM in the EU policy context Discussion will be led by experts dealing with the implementation of different directives and strategies at the MS level (WFD, FD, Habitat/ Birds Directives, Climate Change Adaptation strategy). The discussion will be structured around a series of questions that will help assessing the possible links, the synergies and incoherence related to NWRM implementation in the current policy context. Leading experts: - Claire Mc Camphill, European Commission, DG Environment |
Ca. 17:15 |
Session 3: Financing NWRMs in a catchment-based perspective Chair: Carlos Mario Gomez, IMDEA |
15 minutes each + 30 minutes discussion |
Gloria De Paoli, ACTeon Rob van de Veeren, RWS, to be confirmed Claire Mc Camphill, European Commission, DG Environment Discussion: towards the identification of viable innovative financing frameworks in the EU policy context |
18:45 |
Wrap-up session Heather Williams, AMEC |
Ca. 19:00 |
Closing day 1 |
Day 2
Ca. 8:30 |
Introduction to Day 2 Gloria De Paoli, ACTeon |
Ca. 8:45 |
Session 4: Interconnected catchment planning for NWRMs Chair: Pierre Strosser & Sabine Tutte, ACTeon |
15 minutes for each case study |
Case studies: main issues encountered when planning and implementing NWRMs at the catchment level
Ulrike Pfarr, Adiministration of Baden Wurttenberg
Benoît Grandmougin, Regional Ill service – Alsace region
David Webb, Environmental Agency: to be confirmed |
09:30 |
Break-out group session The objective of the group sessions will be to find solutions for specific issues encountered in the planning and implementation phases, using the three case studies as working examples. Building on case study knowledge, the groups will go through the key steps of design and implementation of NWRMs (steps proposed in the Practical Guidance). Discussions will identify key implementation issues and possible solutions/ steps to boost NWRM effectiveness in delivering multiple objectives –thus objectives pursued by the WFD, FD, Habitat/ Birds Directive and Climate Change adaptation strategies. Basic information sheets and resource maps will be developed for each case study and distributed to working group participants as a background for discussions. The group work will be structured as a role play. The exact format and contents of the role play are being defined. |
11:45 |
Report from break-out group sessions Wrap-up: main lessons learnt during the group discussions |
12:30 |
Session 5: Synthesis of key messages emerging during the workshop Nick Jarrit, AMEC (tbc) |
12:50 |
Session 6: Linking workshop discussions and activities to the NWRM initiative – What are the implications for the Practical Guidance? Pierre Strosser, ACTeon |
|
Moderated discussion: how can key messages of the workshop feed into the practical guidance? |
Ca. 13:30 |
Wrap-up and closing of the workshop Heather Williams, AMEC (tbc) |