Five Ministers Commit to Tisza River Basin Management

The ministers of the five Tisza Countries met in Budapest in September 2019 to commit themselves to implement the draft Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan (ITRBMP) prepared within the JOINTISZA project, in which GWP CEE is one of the partners. The Tisza Memorandum of Understanding outlines the areas, opportunities and means of further international cooperation on the Tisza River. The high-level ministerial meeting organized by the Ministry of Interior of Hungary marked the closing of the JOINTISZA project.

The project involved the joint efforts of the five countries that share the Tisza River Basin — Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine. The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) Tisza Group, the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) Water Quality Priority Area (PA4) and Environmental Risks Priority Area (PA5) platforms helped build a bridge between stakeholders for conveying information from expert levels to policy levels.

The pilot actions, focusing on urban hydrology management and drought management, will enable the involved actors to develop new approaches which are unprecedented in a comparable environment, and contribute with their outcomes to the updated management plan. A factsheet presenting two best practices in urban hydrology management was developed within the project. 

Finally, the main output of the project is an updated version of the Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan, which includes the primary aspects of the Floods Directive, as well as the identified problems and suggested measures, to which contributed a basin-wide stakeholder consultation.

New publications developed within JOINTISZA project

Uppdated version of the Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan  includes the primary aspects of the Floods Directive, as well as the identified problems and suggested measures, to which contributed a basin-wide stakeholder consultation.

A Manual for Knowledge Development Tools and Knowledge Transfer in Urban Hydrology provides a holistic framework to link the knowledge on different water sectors in the city.

Guideline - Application of the Process Oriented Spatial Decision Support Tools explores methods of urban hydrology for middle-sized citites in Central and Eastern Europe, based on concrete reference sites

About JOINTISZA project

The JOINTISZA project enhances the status of waters of the Tisza River Basin. It focuses 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 ensures that flood risk management planning becomes more deeply embedded in the RBM planning process, and 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 is 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.