Research-supported participatory planning for water stress mitigation

Abstract

With multi-stakeholder issues such as climate change or population growth providing significant challenges for water managers, participatory approaches to planning and management are becoming increasingly popular. To aid water stress mitigation in Bulgaria's Iskar region, a participatory process with a broad range of stakeholders was designed and tested. Options adapted for the region such as risk management and industrial and domestic water conservation were studied. The results suggest that strong research support is needed to adapt participatory management theories into operational planning processes. Definition of appropriate working groups with clear roles and responsibilities are also needed to ensure effective implementation.

Keywords:

• drought
• flood
• participation
• stakeholders
• water stress

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank to the European Commission for the financial support under the 6th Framework programme, IP AquaStress project, GOCE Contract No. 511231-2. They would like also to express their greatest thanks to the members of the LPSF for their involvement in and dedication to the project. Similarly, gratitude is extended to all other participants and interviewees who took part in the realisation of the mitigation options. Many thanks are also due to colleagues who contributed significantly to the success of the study: Assist. Prof. Galina Dimova, Eng. Svetlana Vassileva, UACEG, Albena Popova, Sofia University, Matt Hare, Seecon, Jean-Emmanuel Rougier, Cemagref, Yorck von Korff, Cemagref, Dr Thomas Wintghens, RWTH and Prof. Dragan Savic, University of Exeter.