Methodology development for integrated river basin planning [antikvár]

SLOVENSKO YKPAiHA Neighbourhood Programme Methodology development for complex river basin restoration planning Zsuzsanna FLACHNER Research Institute for Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1022 Budapest, Herman Ottó sir. 15. Introduction Nowadays many of planning and development decisions are made on economic grounds and on the basis of the forces at play in the free-market system. Scientist are faced with a new paradigm which has its own limitations and dangers and researchers should not be unrealistic to ignore it and to base assessment and planning just on nature, landscape conservation and propose wise use of river basins on a completely different set of (holistic) values. There must be a consensus on the values applied and on the overall objectives which ensure long term utilization of local, regional resources - especially water, land and biodiversity which are most threatened resources in the Upper Bodrogköz landscape. The evaluation of the catchments environmental and economic-social status and its management should consider different factors, viewpoints based on a common evaluation system and conceptual model. These aspects and assumptions are presented in the publications, highlighting preliminary results incorporated. Key methodologicalframeworic The monitoring and assessment activities should consider the following objectives: • to elaborate the historic processes lead to the present situation; • to elaborate the future processes, effects due to the measures proposed, in the light of the regional, global processes, scenarios • to conceptualize the information collected in the region; • to establish a common loiowledge base and improve the communication among the stakeholders, planners; • to increase the understanding of the dynamic system in the light of short term and longer term objectives; • in general to improve the capacities of managing the landscape resources and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the resources provided by the watershed. The assessment framework proposed has been elaborated for Hungary in the KÉP project (State of Environment Assessment Project, HAS- MEW, 2003-2006, Németh et al, 2007). Its methodology is based on the EU - Environmental Agency, the forces - pressure- state-response conceptual framework (DPSIR) (EEA, 1996). In the following the DPSIR system is described and elements of the Project contribution is highlighted. • Driving forces: these are socio-economic factors, which cause or influence environmental change which influences (positive or negative way) the pressures on the environment, (eg.: No. of habitats, transportation energy consumption; land ownership structure). • Pressures: these are natural or anthropogenic factors, which directly influence the state of the environment. (eg. amount of total Nitrogen emission by agriculture; water used for irrigation; sewage emission of households). • State: it refers to the measures of the quality of the environment and he quality of natural resources, which are influenced by the pressures (present and historical ones) (eg.: BOD in water; CO^ concentration; population of Otis tarda in the region). • Impacts: these are the results of the condition of the environment on ecological processes, living creatures including people. In case of humans the impacts are separated into two sub-categories - exposure (eg. food people eat) and effect (e.g.: decreased immune system). • Responses: These are the efforts taken by the society to respond to environmental (social - economic) changes and issues. The responses are usually policy action related, where different measures can be applied (institutional, legal, economic, information based, educational) (eg. training of farmers on new plantation systems; information system on the water issues of the region).