Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2017 (97. évfolyam)
2017 / 3. szám - MANAGING ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS - FLOOD PROTECTION EXPERIENCES AND COOPERATION IN THE DANUBE RIVER BASIN - Piriîanu, Marisandra - Neamţu, Silvia - Constantin, Gheorghe: EAST AVERT Project MIS ETC 966 implementation - Good Practice Example of Crossborder Cooperation for Flood Risk Prevention
EAST AVERT Project MIS ETC 966 implementation - Good Practice Example of Cross- border Cooperation for Flood Risk Prevention Marisanda Piriianu*, Silvia Neamtu**, Gheorghe Constantin*** * Head of Accessing External Funds Directorate, Ministry of Environment, Romania (E-mail: marisanda.piriianu@mmediu.ro ) ** Senior adviser, Accessing External Funds Directorate, Ministry of Environment, Romania (E-mail: silvia.neamtu@mmediu.ro ) *** Romanian Co-Coordinator of the PA 5 of EUSDR Abstract Over time, all countries of the Danube Region have expressed their common intention to strengthen their cooperation in responding to natural disasters such as massive floods. The EU Danube Strategy creates a frame for this collaboration, especially within Priority Area 5 “Management of Environmental Risks”. As one of the major consequences of climate change, flood events generate hydromorphological alterations to riverbeds and water regime, have a negative impact on the quality of surface waters determining pollution loads from different point and diffuse sources, on natural landscapes and biodiversity, and also result in loss of life and damage to economic activities. Flood prevention is therefore of particular importance. The EU Floods Directive provides a legal framework for a coordinated approach to assessing and managing flood risks. This paper gives an overview of the main challenges occurred during the implementation of a project in the border region between Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The EAST AVERT MIS ETC 966 project brought into attention and focused on both short-term planning measures by modernizing the Early Warning System, as well as long-term flood risk management by flood hazard and flood risk mapping. Key words Flood risk; flood protection; water quality; environmental risk; economic and social vulnerability; flood risk management; flood hazard and risk maps. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________67_ SETTING THE SCENE The Ministerial Declaration adopted by the Danube countries in the framework of their cooperation on water management states that "flood prevention and protection are not short-term tasks but permanent tasks of the highest priority". The Declaration commits the signatories to "develop one single international Flood Risk Management Plan based on the ICPDR Action Programme for Sustainable Flood Protection". Many regions throughout the Danube Region are particularly subject to high flood risks, as was illustrated by the disastrous events in 2006 and 2008. This flood disaster affected large parts of the Danube floodplains in Central and Northern European countries and the loss induced was more than 700 million Euros. Besides extraordinarily high precipitation, the disaster was also due to the loss of flood retention areas such as floodplains and wetlands. Figure 1 and Figure 2 show images of floods recorded on the River Prut in Romania. The prevention of flood hazards caused by transboundary rivers is a global issue to be addressed on a cross-border level. Efforts to deal with the impacts of natural disasters need to be coordinated jointly, facilitating the identification of common problems and the application of appropriate intervention measures. The project idea was generated by the needs of a cross-border approach, since the competences of tackling water management issues are dispersed over countries and institutions. The Project partners were identified among responsible authorities in the field from each country, with the specific aim to cooperate in the development and transfer of common methodologies and tools, thus also contributing to preventing the pollution of the cross-border environment and, to a certain extent, to improving the unfavourable ecologic situation in the region. EAST AVERT MIS ETC 966 is one of the Flagship Projects both for ICPDR Action Programme for Sustainable Flood Protection and for the EU Danube Strategy Action Plan for the coordination of the Priority Area 5 “Management of Environmental Risks”. Within the EAST AVERT MIS ETC 966 project, the protection of the border areas against flood risk through preventive measures is one of the main goals. 3 large cities and many communities along the two river basins (Rivers Prut and Siret) will receive a better flood warning system. As a main output, the project will improve the bilateral water management agreements between Romania, Ukraine and Republic of Moldavia. A common action plan will be agreed upon and applied in the border area and Flood Directive implementation will be assured in the upper Prut and Siret cross-border river basins. The project is crucial for the entire programme area since one of the main results of the implementation of the project is the fact that the technical and functional parameters of the Flydro-technical Complex “Stanca-Costesti” will be improved, which will prevent future flood hazards in the cross-border region. MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT Overall objective The overall objective of EAST AVERT MIS ETC 966 project is to protect the border areas in the upper Siret and Pmt River Basins against flood risk and other natural hazards of the water cycle and accidental pollutions and to reduce the environmental, economic and social vulnerability of targeted localities in the border region against flood risk.
