The Vjosa River Basin, located in the heart of the Balkans, is one of Europe's last free-flowing wild rivers comprising a large number of pristine habitat types with a wealth of biodiversity. Widespread degradation of the forest ecosystem and unsustainable land use due to logging and livestock...

France has a Basin Committee and Coordinating Prefect on each of its RBDs, with the exception of the RBD pair for Scheldt (FRA) and Sambre (FRB2) and the RBD pair for Meuse (FRB1) and Rhine (FRC). At the local level, a significant reform was conducted between 2014 and 2018 to streamline the...

Slovakia has a centralised approach to water management, with one competent authority, the Ministry of Environment, taking charge of all aspects of WFD implementation. In addition, the Office for Regulation of Network Industries (ÚRSO) regulates both drinking water and sanitation tariffs as...

Croatia has two international RBDs: the Danube and the Adriatic, covered by one single RBMP. Three authorities are competent for this RBMP (the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, the national body responsible for water management Croatian Waters and the Josip Juraj Strossmayer...

There have been no major changes in Hungary's water governance since the 2nd RBMP. Hungary has one RBMP and four sub-basin plans, with a multi-layer type of governance. The Hungarian RBMP is coordinated with the FRMP: these documents are undergoing parallel processes of elaboration and revision;...

In Finland, the preparation and implementation of the RBMPs is done by 14 regional authorities: 13 Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centers); and the Government of Åland. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Environment are together...

Poland has several layers of water governance, including Ministries, health authorities and authorities for water management and maritime affairs at the national level; voivodeships (provinces) as the competent authorities at the regional level for enforcement of regulation and implementation of...

Each of Austria's three RBDs: the Danube, the Rhine, and the Elbe is part of three international RBDs. An international agreement, permanent co-operation body, and international RBMP are in place in all three RBDs, but only the Danube and the Rhine iRBMPs (international RBMPs) can be easily...

At the time of this assessment, Belgium had submitted pdf RBMPs for all of its eight RBDs. Electronic reporting was only partially complete (only covering the 2 Flemish RBDs, the Brussels Region RBD for the Scheldt and the Noordzee RBD). The Flanders Region merged the RBMPs for Scheldt and Meuse...

Italy has recently reformed its water governance to ensure better compliance with the WFD principles and other related Directives. In accordance with national legislation, river basin authorities have now full operational power and financial autonomy, and clear roles and responsibilities when it...

Czechia has a two-layer water governance, with authorities competent at the national level (Ministries of Environment and Agriculture) and 14 regional authorities. The RBMPs follow the same logic, with RBMPs at RBD scale and sub-plans on sub-basins. All RBMPs make reference to the objectives of...

Estonia has multiple authorities in charge of the different aspects of the RBMPs, most of them at national levels. The number of competent authorities identified has risen from three to nine since the 2nd RBMPs. All Estonian RBMPs include the objectives of the Floods Directive and the Marine...

Germany has a two-level approach to the governance of the implementation of the WFD: RBMPs at the (national) RBD level and international RBMPs. Some of the RBMPs have subplans. Specific sub-plans can be designed for specific water bodies, e.g. highly polluted water bodies, specific topics, or...

In many countries around the world, water scarcity could become a macroeconomically relevant concern. As a key input into production processes (agriculture, power generation, and industrial use) and a common good, water resources risk being overexploited. Regressions with panel data for 169...

The Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership (GWSP) is a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank's Water Department, established in 2017. Its primary goal is to support countries in achieving water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 6, which aims...

The world's 10 multilateral development banks (MDBs) are committed to joint action to improve global water security by 2030. The Water Security Financing Report 2024 is the first annual report to monitor this joint commitment. The 2024 report provides a baseline for subsequent years as...

A key challenge in modeling water scarcity in computable general equilibrium (CGE) models is getting the substitution elasticity between water and the other inputs right. This paper develops a novel method to derive the values of the substitution elasticity between water and land by implementing...

The report focuses on the following specific research questions: 1. What do historical trends tell us about the future of aquaculture in providing aquatic or blue foods? 2. What role do finance and investment play in sustainable aquaculture development? How have financial mechanisms, government,...

The watershed represents a holistic system whose poor understanding of its multiple subsystems can lead to a pronounced water scarcity. This study aims to develop an innovative technique for managing water resources within the Souss-Massa watershed. It uses the System Dynamics (SD) methodology...

Exploring the short-term effects of water supply promoted by the Sāo Francisco Inter-basin Water Transfer (PISF) on economic aspects in benefited municipalities in Brazil is relevant for three main reasons. First, water is crucial for local development. Second, there was a large volume of...

This guidance has been drafted in response to a mandate from the CIS Working Group on Groundwater. This mandate required the development of a technical document to increase the understanding of the general principles of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) and outline the requirements of EU...

The Water Resilience Experiment aims to contribute to the European Commission's Water Resilience Strategy through the lens of design for policy and behavioural insights. The project focused on increasing cross-DG collaboration around the water topic and reducing the policy-implementation gap by...

The Water Resilience Experiment aims to contribute to the European Commission's Water Resilience Strategy through the lens of design for policy and behavioural insights The project focused on increasing cross DG collaboration around the water topic and reducing the policy implementation gap by...

This study aims to offer an in-depth analysis of water scarcity, availability, and usage in the face of climate change. By employing a comprehensive foresight methodology that includes an extensive literature review, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and broad stakeholder consultation,...

This report aims to convey to the Council, the new Parliament as well as the other EU institutions and stakeholders the latest evidence on the state of water, the pressures water resources are under and Member States' measures to achieve the environmental objectives set in these two Directives....

This report aims to convey to the Council, the new Parliament as well as the other EU institutions and stakeholders the latest evidence on the state of water, the pressures water resources are under and Member States' measures to achieve the environmental objectives set in these two Directives....

Marine mammals and other marine megafauna are subject to a variety of impacts related with human activities. Within the EU waters, stranding networks are actively collecting information on the causes of death of cetaceans, seals, and sea turtles that strand along the coastlines. However, despite...

The European Water Resilience Strategy paves the way for a water-smart Europe for people, the economy and our ecosystems. It contains concrete actions up to 2030 to make Europe water resilient. Water is a finite resource. 34% of the EU is affected by water scarcity.

The surface water Watch List (WL) under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) is a mechanism for collecting high-quality Union-wide monitoring data on emerging pollutants and substances that may pose a significant risk at Union level to or via the aquatic environment, but for which available...

This paper analyses the performative, consumptive and productive uses and meanings of water in and of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), a large dam with reservoir on the Narmada river, located at the border of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh States, India. The main focus of the paper is how water is...

Water conservation is crucial for human sustainable development, particularly in the face of increasing global challenges such as freshwater scarcity, rapid urbanization, and climate change. This study employs structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate water conservation behaviors among...

Each year, water pollution accounts for 1.8 million deaths and costs businesses an estimated 425 billion dollars. The 2030 Water Resources Group (WRG) supports industries and utilities to use water more efficiently and recycle more of the freshwater they consume. By changing incentives,...

One in three cities is at high risk of water stress. The 2030 Water Resources Group (WRG) helps cities prevent, respond to, and recover from water crises. This is done by facilitating partnerships between governments and businesses to manage water more effectively and create resilient and...