ICARUS IWRM for Climate Change Adaptation in Rural Social Ecosystems in Southern Europe

Description

This report summarizes the final achievements of the ICARUS project. The ICARUS project aimed at developing suggestions for policy-makers for increasing the efficiency of water use in agriculture by first analysing and understanding the biophysical (availability of water resources), socio-economic (demographics, employment, land-use, and competition for water use), and institutional (the Water Framework Directive, agricultural and environmental policies, territorial planning policies and actors) dimensions of sustainable water management and then by identifying innovative adaptation strategies, practices and tools for saving water in irrigated production systems, which could be disseminated also in other Mediterranean countries. Focusing on three case studies in Italy, Spain and Portugal, each facing its own challenges, the project developed and tested a decision support method and tool to integrate the management of supply and demand for water resources in the context of global changes and in the frame of an integrated and participatory approach, as an operational solution for mainstreaming climate change into policies. The ICARUS project identified gaps in present policy-making for a sustainable management of water resources and developed its own proposals for an effective and sound policy-making.
This report was prepared within the framework of the IWRM-NET Funding Initiative, with the intent of providing relevant information and to stimulate discussion of those having an interest in integrated water resource management (IWRM).

Reference information