INCDPM - Meeting on the Scientific Support to the Danube Strategy, Ispra, Italy

The representatives of National Institute for Research and Development in Environmental Protection (INCDPM) participated at the Meeting on the Scientific Support to the Danube Strategy which took place between Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd March 2013 in Ispra, Italy. The meeting was organized by Joint Research Centre (JRC), which is the third biggest European Commission Research Site after the ones from Brussels and Luxembourg.

Below is the report of this meeting

Report of Meeting on the Scientific Support to the Danube Strategy, Ispra, Italy

JRC initiative is aiming to provide scientific support to the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region taking into account that the area is facing several challenges, such as environmental threats, insufficient energy and transport connections, uneven socio-economic development as well as shortcomings in safety and security. In this regard, several flagship clusters were organized, as follows:

The Danube Water Nexus (DWN)
The Danube Land and Soil Nexus (DLSN),
The Danube Air Nexus (DAN)
The Danube Bio-energy Nexus (DBN)
Danube Reference Data and Service Infrastructure (DRDSI)

Figure 1: Plenary session

The meeting agenda included an initial plenary session (Figure 1), followed by parallel working group discussions. Three researchers from INCDPM participated at different nexus flagship clusters, namely, Ms. Iustina Popescu at DLSN cluster, Ms. Monica Matei at DBN cluster and Mr. Aurel Varduca at DWN cluster (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Representatives of INCDPM who attended the Scientific Meeting in Ispra

The main objectives of the clusters to which INCDPM representatives participated are:

1. The Danube Water Nexus (DWN)

This flagship cluster cover various water-related issues such as water availability, water quality, water-related risks and the preservation and restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity. Also, the interdependencies of between different water-intensive economic sectors such as agriculture and energy were analyzed.

2. The Danube Land and Soil Nexus (DLSN)

This flagship cluster study various issues related to the state and use of land and soils in the Danube Region, including land and soil availability and quality, land and soil-related risks and the preservation and restoration of above and below ground ecosystems and biodiversity.

3. The Danube Bio-energy Nexus (DBN)

This flagship cluster addresses the challenges related to energy in the Danube Region. It focuses on the high potential of the Danube Region for developing renewable energy from materials derived from biological sources.

The main directions on Water Nexus which INCDPM identified at the meeting as possible fields of interest where contribution can be added are:

determination of the most appropriate mesures to be taken in Danube Region (from the point of view of water quality and water use efficiency)
water flow mesurements and assessment of ecological impact
developing of groundwater map in Danube Region
assessment of navigation impact on Danube biotic and abiotic systems.

The main directions on Land and Soil Nexus which INCDPM identified at the meeting as possible fields of interest where contribution can be added are:

an understanding of land productivity and functionality
harmonized land quality assessment and monitoring of protected areas (E.g.: Danube Delta)
inventory of changes which can occur in land quality
inventory of contaminated areas and their specific issues (health and safety, bioremediation, biodiversity)
map of the Danube Region soils quality
developing of an indicator-based map showing a pressure on soil biodiversity.
prediction of greenhouse gases emission generated by floodplains and prevention modalities
assessment of soil water storage capacity
the impact of soil nutrients leaching to Black Sea.

The main directions on Bio-energy Nexus which INCDPM identified at the meeting as possible fields of interest where contribution can be added are:

Update of EU countries data through the 2011 Progress Reports on the promotion and use of energy from renewable sources.
Develop detailed maps of some raw resources potential, maps which can be finalized and made available as a database for a geographically explicit vision of bioenergy resources and their impact.
Elaborate methodologies for assessing different sustainability aspects of energy exploitation (e.g. water consumption and quality, soil erosion, etc.) for the preparation of further impact maps.

Were established contacts with various organizations across Danube Region in order to develop future collaborations, as it is showed in Figure 3:

Figure 3: Map with countries where future collaborations are possible on the discussed fields

As a general conclusion, the scientific meeting have fulfilled its main aim by improving the future collaborations between the interested organizations from Danube Region and decided the most important issues on water, air, soil and bioenergy. As a future action, next month will be elaborated the final flagship cluster proposal including detailed work packages descriptions, milestones and work allocation. Also, is planned to organize a high level event in May 2013 in Bratislava where are to be established more details about the future projects on Danube Strategy.