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What could water management look like for cross-border watersheds?
November 2023
On October 17th, 2023, the MOT network's "Cross-border ecological transition" working group held its 5th meeting. This was an opportunity to investigate issues linked to cross-border management of water resources in the context of climate change.
Four speakers presented their approaches to cross-border management of this essential and strategic resource, which is increasingly threatened by climate change:
- Isabelle Eudes, from the Rhône Mediterranean Corsica Water Agency, presented a recent study highlighting the challenges of future changes in Rhône flows in the light of climate change, and the need for cooperation that these changes will bring.
- Xavier Chelkowski, from the Flanders-Dunkirk Urban Planning Agency (AGUR), presented the Interreg project MAGETEAUX, designed to control the risk of cross-border flooding on the French-Belgian border between Flanders and the Dunkirk region.
- Séverine Salgado, from the Basque Country Conurbation Community, highlighted the cross-border water management issues facing the Basque Country (water stress, water quality, etc.), then presented three recently submitted Interreg projects: the URAMUGA project (sustainable management and shared governance of the water cycle in cross-border watersheds), the IA4FLOOD project (flood prevention using artificial intelligence and citizen participation) and OSTREOBILA (development of decision-support tools to combat toxic microalgae Ostreopsis spp).
- Jérôme Mathias, from the Jura Arc Cross-Border Statistical Observatory (OSTAJ)-INSEE, then spoke about territorial observation of water resources in the Jura Arc.
These various presentations identified the many cross-border issues involved in managing this resource. Faced with the intensification of extreme climatic events (floods, storms, drought), cross-border territories are faced with the challenges of joint risk management, cross-border observation of resources and governance of a strategic but increasingly rare resource (quantity, quality…).
The various initiatives highlighted by the group demonstrate the need for coordinated action at several levels and on all aspects of water resource management: projects for cross-border observation of the resource, joint risk management, joint governance of the resource or even cross-border management of water flow management infrastructures.
Discover this month’s project sheet [FR]
Watch the replay and all the presentations (members only) [FR]
