Making society an active participant in water adaptation to global change (BEWATER)

The Mediterranean region faces increased water scarcity, and even drought, driven by changes in land use, demographics and the climate. If the region is to avoid the ensuing socioeconomic losses and environmental impacts, there is a pressing need for effective and sustainable water management practices. The EU-funded BEWATER project recognised that successful adaptation measures require efforts that go beyond raising public awareness. Therefore, BEWATER developed plans embedded with shared responsibility and active community participation. This shifted the focus from technocratic solutions to those that were stakeholder driven, drawing on local experience and knowledge. BEWATER researchers worked with the project stakeholders to create River Basin Adaptation Plans (RBAP) for the four selected case study locations: Tordera (Spain), Pedieos (Cyprus), Rmel (Tunisia) and Vipava (Slovenia). In total the group identified and formulated 102 water management options. To engage participants, BEWATER adopted the Stakeholder Integrated Research (STIR) approach, specifically tailored to climate change adaptation. Guided by STIR, stakeholders for each river basin were identified using the Criteria-Quota-Individuals method, which ensured sufficient group diversity, in terms of their areas of expertise (agriculture, infrastructure, water, environment, energy, forest management), organisational affiliations (business and economy; government and public authorities; civil society; practitioners) and gender. The participatory process included activities such as Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping for reference models capturing basin dynamics and Multi-Criteria Analysis to prioritise proposals and implementation options. Participatory modelling tools and multi-criteria analysis were used to assess the impacts of the options and the stakeholder preferences. To ensure the retention and transfer of knowledge, BEWATER facilitated regular transnational meetings and events. Partners, along with key stakeholders from each basin, shared lessons learned, knowledge on water governance and management issues, as well as the challenges and success of overall project implementation. Additionally, the team compiled a freely available handbook that provides guidelines outlining the considerations and steps necessary to design a river basin adaptation plan using a scientific participatory process.