SEA of river basin management plans: incorporating climate change

Abstract

In, 2000 the European Parliament and the European Council passed the Water Framework Directive (WFD) to be implemented in all Member States. The consequence of the directive is that river basin management plans (RBMPs) shall be prepared which are legally subject to a strategic environmental assessment (SEA). An important environmental factor for the water sector is climate change, especially the changes it causes to the water environment. However, based on an argument of an inadequate knowledge base regarding climate change impacts, the prospect of Danish authorities including climate change in their SEAs of RBMPs is weak. In this paper the connections between climate change and water are reviewed. As a result, it is suggested that climate change needs to be considered in three ways: mitigation, adaptation and baseline adaptation.

Keywords:

• strategic environmental assessment
• river basin management plans
• water framework directive
• climate change
• mitigation
• adaptation