EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

Pre-proposal No 5 ADAPTATION TO AND MITIGATION OF ADVERSE WATER-RELATED IMPACTS IN VULNERABLE
SYSTEMS – ENHANCEMENT OF EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY OF ADAPTATION STRATEGIES
AND MEASURES UNDER UNCERTAINTY
Justification
The premises on which this document builds are the following: climate changes impacts on terrestrial, aquatic, social and economic systems,
modifying the interactions among them. Consequently, new equilibria will occur. Existing and in development climate changes models allow
anticipation of more vulnerable regional areas and systems. Based on such information, adaptation and mitigation measures can be proactively
taken aiming to prepare ecosystems and society to ensure ecosystems uses and services. Such adaptation and mitigations processes
require integrated strategies on all intervening systems. National regulations may also need to be adapted. The ability to successfully implement
adaptation and mitigation measures and strategies depends on knowledge and technical capacity.
Based on these premises and the Research Area a Call line under the title “Enhancement of effectiveness and efficiency of adaptation strategies
and measures under uncertainty” was proposed.
Specific objectives from perspective of the New Member States
This call line reflects the. The identified objectives were as follows:
• Promoting sustainable development by enhancing nature-based and man-made infrastructure-based approaches to adaptation and mitigation.
• Aggregating and comparing adverse and positive impacts across different sectors for the development of adaptive capacities of decision
making, harmonizing data and policies for planning, and adaptive management.
• Inclusion of all temporal scales from short-term (e. g. flood forecasting and warning, temporary dikes, projection of water quality) to long-term
(e.g. decades for forestry or reservoir planning).
• Adaptation for cross-boundary cases (international watersheds) in the spirit of Water Framework Directive (River Basin District)
• Promoting robustness of adaptation and mitigation strategies by integration of stakeholder analysis and commercial viability to enable all-level
stakeholders to benefit from the provision of water-related services.
• Adverse water-related impacts including changes in water surface, sub-surface and groundwater resources quantity and quality (low dilution
at low flows, erosion and flushing chemicals by intense precipitation, overland flow, and snowmelt, preferential flow, temperature-induced
eutrophication, changes in retention time and stratification in reservoirs, saltwater intrusion, and salinization of agricultural land)
Background / state-of-the-art
The participants agreed that within the suggested Call Line several specific research topics should be addressed based on the evaluation of the existing
knowledge. The participants emphasized the existence of vulnerable systems: natural systems (semi-natural and managed aquatic, terrestrial ecosystems,
in particular mountainous, lake, riparian, wetland, coastal systems); human systems (vulnerable regions, sectors, groups of people). Examples of vulnerable
sectors were quoted: water management, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, industry, energy, health, tourism, transport. Current situation and projections
for the future indicate decreasing precipitation, river flows, soil moisture, and groundwater levels in summer (in vegetation season) in much of Europe, changing
means, seasonality and extremes, potential for higher intense precipitation, less snow cover, earlier and lower snowmelt – possibility of low flows and
early spring droughts. Therefore, sectors have to adapt to the existing climate and every change induces a need for adaptation, involving costs.
In the State-of-the art assessment there was a general agreement among the participants that some adaptation to natural variability of water availability and changing
demand has taken place. However, there are considerable differences in dealing with climate change and its possible impacts in various NMS/AC countries.
Instead of fixed boundary conditions to be considered, interactions with exogenous drivers and multiple stressors, also besides the climate
change (e. g. land-use, land-cover and land property changes in the transition period) have to be taken into account.
Ongoing and completed projects on issues raised
In respect to past and on-going research, it was unequivocally concluded that projects have addressed mainly the climate change, while the
adaptation and mitigation issues in NMS and AC countries have been poorly covered, leaving many important issues unsolved but many
opportunities to apply novel approaches omitted. The following list of past and on-going projects/programs was put together:
• ADAM (Adaptation and mitigation strategies) – 6FP IP. It was noted that the project mostly addressed Pan-European research
• National Climate Programmes exist in some countries (e.g., Slovakia, Hungary – VAHAVA, Bulgaria) but they deal mostly with impacts. Adaptation
is on general not taken into consideration.
• Stormwater master plan, Malta
• Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Malta is the only EU Member State to have non-annex 1 status. Benefit from sale of carbon credits.
• Sector-specific projects on adaptation (Slovakia)
• WMO/UNESCO Flood Initiative
• Assessment of climate change impact on the hydrological cycle elements in South-Eastern European countries (UNESCO, UVO ROSTE)
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