Integrated water management of transboundary catchments

The main goal of the project will be to create an operational and integrated comprehensive Decision Support System (DSS) for optimal water management of catchments in borderland regions, in context 

of the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.
   
The development of the proposed DSS will allow an integrated water management system within the scope of the transboundary catchment. It will be able to cope with the complexity of the water resources 
systems and the uncertainty of decision-making. The DSS will be built around modules that allow simulation of the range of different climatic, topographic, environmental and socio-economic conditions found in various EU and candidate countries transboundary catchment areas. This will allow its application not only within Europe and European borderland regions, but also worldwide. 
The borderland problems in water management occur not only in Europe, they are a sensitive problem also within, e.g., Africa and Latin America, where they are achieving even the strategic importance from the point of view of socio-economic approaches of the border states in a sense of their human utilization.    
   
Certainly, an integrated DSS might be used not only within the borderland catchments between the individual states, but also for water management control at the boundary between provinces 
or territorial (county) regions. The DSS to be developed will focus mainly on pollution, flooding and water use issues.   
   
Another objective of the project will be the establishment of an European platform for initiating and promoting international co-operation and networking that will allow a more detailed insight 
to transboundary water/environment and related socio/economic problems. This will be achieved by connecting TRANSCAT with pre-existing EU Research of the FP5, in the perspective of the forthcoming 
FP6 and, connecting TRANSCAT with EU institutions involved in the process of implementing the WFD, with specific reference to the problems of pre-accession countries.   
   
The proposed project incorporates a research program aiming to avoid the extended aquifer contamination, improvement of groundwater and aquifer quality, and reducing of flooding risks under the umbrella 
of adequate integrated water resources management (IWRM).    
   
Relevant tools will be developed and procedures defined to be able to prepare the necessary local information for selecting a most promising transboundary management scenario and take decisions 
on it. By following up this scenario with local project development in line with certain predefined priorities, synergies can be initiated and use of funds optimised. Although member states have 
to take charge of the management of the programmes and financing, this procedure based on the filter of a regional development strategy can guarantee transformation of EU-policies into regional 
measures in a more reliable and traceable form. Results in relation to strategy and policies can be regularly monitored and measurable feedbacks used for programme optimisation (e.g. in ongoing 
programmes and actions like the structural funds, INTERREGIII, LEADER+, SAPARD, ISPA, CBC-PHARE). 

Project Resources: 

TRANSCAT Consortium (2003) TRANSCAT Project: Awareness Creation Management Report, Deliverable DL 1.1 

Transcat Project: First report with summary and evaluation of contributions in the discussion forum 

Transcat Project: Report of the TRANSCAT European workshop. 

Analysis of selected DSS for the water management domain in borderland regions. 

Collection of monitoring strategies effective in countries participating in the TRANSCAT project. 

Transcat Project: Manual - Standard Procedure for Data Acquisition 

Transcat Project: IGMS: Optimised hydrological data acquisition and transfer. 

The state-of-art in European water resource related DSS systems and methodologies. An assessment from the transboundary application point of view 

Transcat Project: Description of legal requirements and goal system (including the 5 pilot areas). 

Transcat Project: Description of specification of multi-sectoral development model,contents and information structure. 

Transcat Project: Description of requirements forintegrated methodology and data. 

Groundwater Modelling in Small River Basins 

Main decision analytic issues in support for transboundary catchments 

TRANSCAT project and prototype of DSS 

Transcat Project: The DSS prototype