ISTRA-HIDRO

Project summary

General cross-borders objectives of the project were: the protection of underground waters on the cross-border area; with joint cooperation improve the regional development deficiencies, which appeared with the execution of the water protection within the country’s borders; to improve the ecological consciousness of the local inhabitants on the cross-border area; to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants with the advanced system of water management, and the reduction of the environmental risk. Specific cross-borders objectives of the operation were: making of joint expert basis for the purposes of environmental protection, exploitation of groundwater and land planning in the region; joint assessment of the situation of the available quality and the burden of ground waters; development of a common methodology for mapping and protective measures for groundwater protection; development of a common GIS as a basis for future cross-border areas planning in years 2015-2021 in accordance with Water Framework directive; building capacities, cooperation and coordinated functioning of institutions and organizations in the field of environmental protection, exploitation of groundwater and land use planning in the region; improvement of ecological awareness among the local population about the need to protect groundwater as a common natural heritage and the foundation for further development of cross-border regions; reduction of contamination of groundwater on the basis of joint planning, management and monitoring on the cross-border area. The added value of the project is faster and stronger development of cooperation of public in the cross-border areas on the basis of precisely directed actions for mutual protection and care about groundwater resources that are recharged on one side and abstracted for waterworks and other use on the other side of states’ border. Cross-border aspect value from point of view of the social-economic effect is a strong incentive to local community initiative reinforced by the clear support of institutions operating on the state level. Strong incentive to cross-border cooperation initiative of local community and institutions will be enabled by the aid of IPA funding enabling partners to use the advanced tools to support integrated water resources management. These tools are geological and hydro-geological observations, measurements, evaluation and interpretation methods, GIS database design and web application for effective presentation of free accessible results and, above all, the use of conceptual models as a carrier of information exchange between stakeholders. This approach and tools will significantly facilitate efforts for common management for the rest of the border area between Slovenia and Croatia, where numerous cross-border groundwater flows appear, and also water protection areas, which will also significantly reduce the costs.