11th Meeting of Working Group F on Floods of the WFD Common Implementation Strategy (Bucharest, 19 April 2012)

On 19 April 2012, the Working Group F on Floods of the WFD Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) held its 11th meeting in Bucharest (Romania). The aims of the meeting were to discuss the current status of the Floods Directive reporting (including the Floods Directive Viewer) and to plan the next steps to be adopted after the recent completion of the preliminary flood risk assessment. During the meeting, an update on related research activities and events (e.g. 2nd ERA-Net CRUE Funding Initiative, REFORM project, UNESCO-IOC website on Tsunamis, FLOODrisk 2012 Conference) and on related EU activities (e.g. public consultation for the Blueprint, the 2013-2015 Working Group Work Programme and the EU Flood Impact database) was provided.

On the Floods Directive implementation, three of the main issues addressed by Working Group F were: firstly, the pilot study and testing phase for the flood hazard and flood risk map reporting (currently ongoing – joined by CZ, DE, IE, IT, NL, SE and UK); secondly, the realization of a resource document aimed at ensuring an effective coordination of the Floods Directive and the WFD; lastly, the outcomes of the most recent Thematic Workshops of Working Group F (“Floods and economics”, Oct. 2010, Ghent, BE; “Stakeholder involvement in flood risk management”, Apr. 2012, Bucharest, RO). The European Commission recalled to Working Group F delegates to start consulting the national colleagues involved in the WFD implementation in order to coordinate the first cycle of the Flood Risk Management Plans and the second cycle of the River Basin Management Plans.

In this context, Dr. Stefano Mariani (ISPRA, IT) introduced the REFORM project to delegates present at this meeting of Working Group F on Floods. REFORM aims indeed to have a practical and, potentially, EU-wide impact on river basin management planning policy, by developing instruments and guidelines for successful and cost-effective river restoration and by improving procedures to monitor the biological responses to hydromorphological change, in the context of policy integration.

The linkage between REFORM and Working Group F on Floods is considered particularly useful to enforce the synergy between the tools and guidelines on ecological river restoration, as planned by REFORM, and the flood protection measures, as required by the Floods Directive.

The presentation on REFORM gave details on the different work packages of the project, the REFORM case study areas and the project’s dissemination plans including plans for a “River Restoration Wiki” (an interactive tool for presenting information and results of the case-study activity).

Dr. Mark Adamson (Office Public Works, IE), the Working Group F co-chair, expressed interest in REFORM and showed the group’s willingness to be kept informed on project future activities and be updated on project results.

 

Figure: Schematic representation of the main elements of the REFORM dissemination strategy

More information on this meeting is available at 

http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/env/wfd/library?l=/framework_directive...

For further information: 

Author: Stefano Mariani, Ispra