The JOINTISZA project will enhance the status of waters of the Tisza River Basin. It will focus on the interactions of two key aspects of water management — river basin management (RBM) and flood protection — while taking into account the relevant stakeholders who play a pivotal role in the Tisza RBM planning process. The main aim of the project is to further improve the integration of water management and flood risk prevention planning and actions for the next RBM planning cycle, in line with the relevant EU legislation.
The JOINTISZA project will ensure that flood risk management planning becomes more deeply embedded in the RBM planning process, and will also facilitate the involvement of interested stakeholders and relevant sectors (e.g. flood risk-, water resource-, urban hydrology- and drought management).
A long-term goal of the project will be to generate momentum for improved implementation of the Floods Directive and Water Framework Directive, targeting four specific groups: national water administrations, water research institutes, international organisations and other interested stakeholders, and NGOs.
The project will involve the joint efforts of the five countries that share the Tisza River Basin — Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine. The ICPDR Tisza Group and EUSDR PA4 platforms will build a bridge between stakeholders over which information can be conveyed from expert levels to policy levels, and the management and communication plan developed through the project will ensure the wide-range involvement of target groups. Moreover, project pilot actions will provide a specific platform for information sharing and interactive learning. Finally, the main output of the project will be an updated final draft of the Integrated Tisza RBM Plan, which already includes the primary aspects of the Floods Directive.