Sustainable InteGral Management Approaches for Water areas (SIGMA for Water)

The problem that all partners in this project face is twofold: due to past human activity water quality and environmental quality of selected areas within the partnership decreased significantly; in addition all partners wish to be able to deal with anticipated changes in the climate which poses the partnership with the challenge to deal with future changes in water quantity. The solution is found identifying existing good practices within the partnership and from there jointly developing integrated master plans focused on the development of NEW lakes and wetland areas which both significantly increase water quality in the water system and make the water system more flexible in terms of quantity. At the end of the project, relevant regional policies within the partnership will be evaluated in order to promote future lake and wetland development. The conclusions will become the basis of policy recommendations and a toolkit for lake and wetland development. The implementation of the master plans is envisaged beyond the project’s lifetime and will be facilitated by the development of action and funding plans.