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The News N° 24 - March 2014
FRom one conTinenT To anoTHeR
The 5
th
European Conference on River
Restoration, organized by ECRR (Euro-
pean Center for River Restoration), took
place in Vienna (Austria), from 11 to
13 September 2013.
The experts reminded the need to move from
local scale to the scale of the entire river
basin, in order to maximize the benefits and
make significant improvements in the river
status across the European continent.
Sharing information and knowledge and
establishing networks working on river
management became essential to achieve
this goal.
Mr. Jean-François Donzier, INBO Techni-
cal Secretary, was invited to open the
session on ”the rehabilitation of rivers:
a collective challenge”.
During this event,
the International Com-
mission for the Protection of the Rhine
(ICPR)
was awarded
the first ”European
Riverprize”
in recognition of achievements
in the integrated management of the Rhine
Basin, after inheriting a river degraded by
50 years of pollution and a devastating che-
mical accident in 1986.
4
5
th
European Conference
on River Restoration
Speech by Mr. Jean -François Donzier
© IOWater - C. Runel
EUROPE
This workshop jointly organized by
”ONEMA” and IOWater in Plovdiv on
13 November 2013 within the yearly
“EUROPE-INBO” Conference (13-15
November 2013) gathered 78 partici-
pants from 16 countries, as well as the
European Commission and the Euro-
pean Environment Agency.
This workshop gathered participants with
various backgrounds, policy-makers, scien-
tists, water managers and representatives of
the private sector and has been an opportu-
nity for sharing field experiences and good
practices in monitoring, in view of preparing
the second cycle of WFD implementation.
To allow for a maximum of discussions and
exchanges, the workshop was organized in
two main sessions:
Firstly, a general introduction of the main
issues and presentations from the European
Commission, the European Environment
Agency, Bulgaria, Sweden and France;
Then, during the second part of the work-
shop, the audience was divided into working
groups which successively addressed three
main pre-identified issues. Each issue was
introduced by a presentation on the practical
experiences of a Member State.
l
Theme 1: Purpose of monitoring pro-
grams:
”Vision of The Netherlands; Rijks-
waterstaat experiences”;
l
Theme 2: Stakeholders’ organization
and role:
”Monitoring in compliance
with the Water Framework Directive in
Austria; experiences and outlook”;
l
Theme 3 - Monitoring strategies:
”Evolution of monitoring networks in
Wallonia since 1975 according to various
European Directives”.
A summary report was then provided by each
sub-group in plenary session, followed by
discussions between all the participants.
These fruitful exchanges helped to identify
and highlight issues and experiences of field
practitioners. They also led to draw conclu-
sions and recommendations shared by all the
participants of the workshop on the imple-
mentation and follow-up of the new Pro-
grams of Measures.
The detailed agenda, all presentations
and a summary of the outcomes can be
found on INBO website, “EUROPE-
INBO” 2013 section:
4
78 participants coming from 16 countries
© IOWater - C. Runel
© IOWater - C. Runel
11
th
”EUROPE-INBO” International Conference
A workshop on monitoring - 13 November 2013 - Plovdiv - Bulgaria
