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Nature conservation agency or organisation:
you should investigate
and understand the links between the hydrological cycle and biodiversity.
In some cases, your nature protection efforts can contribute to the
achievement of water policy objectives and to restoring goodwater status
further downstream in your catchment.
Focusing the assessment at the catchment scale,ormaking thewater cycleexplicit
in your planning process, requires:
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A clear definition of
multiple policy and management objectives at the
catchment/territorial scale
addressing the range of benefits and policies
that NWRMmight contribute to. For example, river basin management
planning in some countries addresses mainlyWFD objectives and leaves
aside flood risk, habitat or climate change adaptation challenges. Unless
the latter challenges can be brought in to the river basin scale, this reduces
the opportunities for NWRM to be recognised as good candidates for
contributing to the achievement of thesemultiple objectives.
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Theestablishment of
assessmentmechanisms
or rules that help to combine
and address the potential multiple impacts that measures (NWRM and
others)might deliver at the scaleof the catchment (or other relevantwater-
related geographic scale).This couldbe aGeographic Information System to
help identify areaswith thehighest potential forNWRM,aswell as providing
qualitative evidence on the ecosystem services they might deliver, and the
target population that might benefit from those services. It could take the
formof amanagedprocess for bringing together (and consolidating) expert
and stakeholder knowledge of the geographical areas with the highest
potential for NWRM and their potential impacts. It could also build on
complex spatial simulationmodels that help to link potential measures with
changes in catchment hydrologyor ecology (see illustration13).
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A clear understanding of
upstream-downstream linkages
, to ensure
that opportunities are recognised for providing benefits in one part of a
catchment by implementing actions elsewhere.
It is important to stress that the selection of measures can be performed at
different scales, such as:
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The scale of water bodies as defined under theWFD;
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The scaleof a nature-protected area that has specific protectionmeasures
for biodiversity;
Chapter4
