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1. TwinBasin Progress
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Twining agreements progress

* 1^st proposals of twinning organised in march 2005 :
à 5 tiwinnings supported concerning 7 countries
à Mobility : 20 missions are programmed (10 % of mobility budget) ; 7 missions already carried out
à Missions’ feedbacks allow to improve SIGs

* 2^nd call for proposal (deadline for submission was 31^st July 2005) : Steering Committee decision expected on September 12^st
à 10 proposals received for River Basin Organisations
à 14 countries involved
à Various topics related to IWRM : European Framework Directive implementation, Economical and institutional aspects, Hydrobiology & hydrology, Coastal waters’ management, Basin valorisation by tourism, etc.

Mobility reports : Example of the first mobility : Twinning between the Jucar River Basin Authority (Spain) and Apele Romane Buzau-Ialomita (Romania)

Main topics: Implementation of art. 5 of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), flood prevention, automatic hydrologic information systems, monitoring networks, administrative framework.
Two experts have been involved in the mobility. Four missions have been identified of one week each. The 1 st mobility was in April 2005, the 2 nd one is planned in July 2005. The Romanian expert went to Spain to learn about the work developed by the Jucar River Basin Authority. The activities developed during the mission concerned exchanges of experiences and learning about the administrative framework based on the visit done to the Jucar RiverBasin Authority …, the visit to the Automatic Information System and the description of the flood prevention plans and their structural measures, the increase in knowledge and learning about quality, physico-chemical and biological network and piezometric network. The work developed by the Jucar River Basin Authority, according to art 5 requirements, was presented in technical visits (water bodies delineation and protected areas) and presentation of the GESHIDRO information system.
After these exchanges, the Romanian party has modified its approach concerning the treatment of temporary streams and is interested in the approach to water monitoring. The technical visit of channels and dams has shown concrete engineering solutions. It is very important to notice that the water management systems are very similar in both countries.
Recommendations :
- It is important to identify the exact areas of interest before starting the mission;
- It is useful to have documents and presentations in English.

Progress made on the MoU signatories

64 signatories of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)  :
à 17 from SC - Steering Commitee
à 47 out SC (Basin Organisations, NGOs, International Organisations, Research Teams, Scientists, …)

News on the website : twinbasin.org

The website dedicated to TwinBasin project has been restructured and improved. You can find the following sections and documents :
w TwinBasin : Context / Objectives / Working procedures / Expected results / Partners / Timetable
w Participating : How to participate to the TwinBasin project ? / Signing the MoU / Proposing a twinning / Attending the web conferences
w Results and lessons learned : Project progress / Twinnings reports / Web conferences reports
w Documentation: Guidelines / Newsletters and leaflet / Others twinning projects / Links
w Twinning Clusters / TwinLatin
w Access to the member’site
Please about the website and your comments to improve it.

Summary

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2. Web conference : September 13 ^th 2005 , 11H-12H30
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One of the main operational goals of the TwinBasin project is to develop exchange opportunities between basin organisation managers or executives and scientists. Events will be organised throughout the 4 years of the project, during the INBO meetings or via periodic web seminars (one per month).
The web conference will be organised on a regular basis to disseminate knowledge and know-how on a peer-to-peer basis.
The web conference duration is around 1.5 hour with a presentation of a speaker, key expert or staff member of mobility… with Powerpoint visual support, followed by interactive discussion.
The conference has been recorded and available on the TwinBasin web site.

Topic of the web conference Sept. 13^th, 11h-12h30 : Twinbasin experience on modelling on the basin scale - case study : Norrstrom, BioBio" with a focus on modelling results and data availability"
Speaker : Faruk Djodjic, PhD, Water Resources and GIS, IVL, Swedish Environmental Research Institute
20 Participants : Signatories of the MoU, members of clusters.

Summary

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3. Announcement of next meeting and events
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2005 :

2006 :

URGENT ! EURO-INBO meeting Sept. 28^th to Oct. 1^st in Namur (Belgium), International meeting on the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive
More information

Summary

TWINLATIN “Twinning European and Latin-American river basins for research enabling sustainable water resources management”

The proposal is designed to enable and facilitate twinning in all fields of activity in order to fill gaps in knowledge. The strong component of public participation and stakeholder involvement will ensure that each component has local ownership. The river basins selected represent a wide variety of conditions, addressing also transboundary water problems. Thus, the applicability of the WFD approach will vary for the third country basins, and methodology applied will be a modification of the WFD process.
The river basins selected are: Baker (Chile-Argentina), Catamayo-Chira (Peru-Ecuador), Cauca (Colombia), Lago de Nicaragua (Nicaragua), and Quarai/Cuareim (Uruguay-Brazil). The European river basins are Thames (UK) and Norrström (Sweden).

To have more information click here.

Summary

If you want to actively participate and make progress in the IWRM field, mainly through the twinning of basin organisations,
If you have any interest in the development of IWRM practices,
If you want to be a pioneer and an active participant in developing a consensus on issues of common interest,
If you want to help filling the gap between RESEARCH and actual IMPLEMENTATION of IWRM principles…
If you want to SHARE THE TWINNING KNOWLEDGE…
à Sign the MoU

Summary

This newsletter gives you regular information on TwinBasin project. You can download it (PDF, 64 Ko) and the previous from the TwinBasin website twinbasin.org .
This newsletter is also yours; you can participate and give us your comments and information to improve it.

To subscribe to this newsletter : .

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