River basin management plans are a management tool in

integrated water resources management Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slight ...

. They generally contain descriptions of the

water resources Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slight ...

in a

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

and water allocation plans.

Europe

River Basin Management Plans are a requirement of the

Water Framework Directive The Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC is an EU directive which commits European Union member states to achieve good qualitative and quantitative status of all water bodies (including marine waters up to one nautical mile from shore) by 2015. ...

and a means of achieving the protection, improvement and sustainable use of the water environment across Europe. This includes surface freshwaters (including lakes, streams and rivers), groundwater, ecosystems such as some wetlands that depend on groundwater, estuaries and coastal waters out to one nautical mile. The Directive requires

member states A member state is a state that is a member of an international organization or of a federation or confederation. Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) include some members that are not sovereign states ...

to aim to achieve at least ''good status'' in each

water body A body of water or waterbody (often spelled water body) is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as p ...

within their

river basin districts A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wa ...

. Each member state must produce a plan for each of the river basin districts within its territory. Plans must include: objectives for each water body; reasons for not achieving objectives where relevant; and the programme of actions required to meet the objectives. River Basin Management Plans were published for several member states in December 2010.

River basin management in a changing climate - a Guidance document

In November 2009, Water Directors of EU Member States issued a guidance document on

adaptation to climate change Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to current or expected effects of climate change.IPCC, 2022Annex II: Glossary öller, V., R. van Diemen, J.B.R. Matthews, C. Méndez, S. Semenov, J.S. Fuglestvedt, A. Reisinger (eds.) InClimat ...

in water management. The document is the first result of numerous actions included in the European Commission White Paper ''Adapting to climate change; Towards a European framework for action''. The document includes guidance on how to take climate change into account in the implementation of the Water Framework Directive, the

Floods Directive The Floods Directive (Directive 2007/60/EC) is legislation in the European Parliament on the assessment and management of flood risks. The floods directive basically prescribes a three-step procedure: First step: Preliminary Flood Risk Assessme ...

and the Strategy on

Water Scarcity Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water Water resources, resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity: physical or economic water scarcity. Physical water ...

and

Drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

References

{{reflist

External links

The Water Framework Directive in England and Wales
- Environment Agency
River basin planning in Scotland
- Scottish Environment Protection Agency
River basin management in a changing climate - a Guidance document
(pdf 2.1MB) Water resources management River regulation

Europe

River basin management in a changing climate - a Guidance document

See also

References

External links