Significant Water Management Issues (SWMIS)
The EU Water Framework Directive aims to make all waters cleaner and healthier. To meet these requirements, the ICPDR's Danube River Basin Management Plan closely examines the most important pressures affecting water status.
Significant water management issues, called SWMIs, are the central pressures of basin-wide importance affecting the ecological and chemical status of surface waters, including pollution by organic substances, nutrients, and hazardous substances, as well as hydromorphological alterations. The first interim overview on the Significant Water Management Issues was created in 2007 for the 1st DRBM. The SWMIs outlined in this report were derived based on the requirements of the WFD and mainly related to quality aspects. For transboundary groundwater bodies, both qualitative and quantitative issues are addressed.
With the SWMI report laying out the Significant Water Management Issues within the Danube River Basin, it is also laying the foundation for the focus of the DRBMP. It provides a consensus beneficial for creating a shared language. It serves not only for public information purposes but also for public participation regarding the issues and how they are to be addressed on a Basin-wide level.
With the various effects of climate change becoming increasingly evident worldwide, it has become essential that all stakeholders address these problems at all levels. To this end, the ICPDR's basin-wide vision to deal with water-related effects of climate change (drought, water scarcity, extreme hydrological phenomena, and other impacts) is to make full use of our wealth of knowledge on River Basin Management to meet these challenges.
The goal remains to achieve resilience and ultimately sustain the inherent ecological and cultural value of the aquatic environment of the Danube River Basin. Preventive measures will be taken to mitigate the impacts of climate change, adapt to it, and minimize the related damages, thus reducing the vulnerability of aquatic and water-related ecosystems to climate change.
