A workshop on transboundary flood risk management was organized on 22 and 23 April 2009 within the framework of the programme of work of the UNECE Water Convention, under the joint leadership of the Government of Germany, the Government of the Netherlands and in cooperation with the World Meteorological Organisation.
Background:
Extreme flood events and especially the economic, social and environmental as well as human life losses they cause have significantly increased during the last years in the UNECE region. At the same time, flood prone areas represent vital assets to the economy of many members of the region that can and should not be abandoned. Due to the transboundary nature of many rivers in the region, flooding often has transboundary consequences and thus cooperation is required.
For this reason, under the Water Convention, Guidelines on Sustainable Flood Prevention were adopted in 2000 and subsequently Model Provisions on Transboundary Flood Management were adopted in 2006. The fourth meeting of the Parties to the Water Convention in 2006 created a new Water and Climate Task Force which was entrusted with activities in two main areas of work: transboundary flood management and water and climate change adaptation. In the area of transboundary flood management, the Task Force should support the transfer of the experience and results of the European Network of Expertise on Flood Risk Management to non-European Union countries. To this aim, the workshop on transboundary flood risk management is organized.
Objectives:
- exchange experiences and support the transfer of results from research projects and other recent activities concerning flood management in the European Union to non-EU countries, e.g. the work of the European exchange circle on flood forecasting (EXCIFF), the European exchange circle on flood mapping (EXCIMAP) and the EU Working Group on Floods;
- provide a platform for exchange of positive and negative experiences and lessons learned by Parties that have developed flood risk management plans taking into account the transboundary context and those which are currently developing or planning to develop such programmes;
- analyse in depth flood management problems in a limited number of transboundary basins in the UNECE region and provide recommendations for improving transboundary cooperation regarding flood risk management in these basins.
Documents and presentations from the workshop are available in the table below.