Building multi-country collaboration on watershed management: lessons on linking environment and public health from the Western Balkans

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Community-based watershed resilience programs that bridge public health and environmental outcomes often require cross-boundary, multi-country collaboration. The CRESSIDA project, led by the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) and supported by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), forwards a resilience-focused approach for Western Balkan communities in the Drini and Drina river watersheds with the goal of safeguarding public health and the environment. The initial phases of this project give a contextualized example of how to advance resilience-driven environmental health goals in Western Balkan communities, and experience within the region has garnered several theme areas that require focus in order to promote a holistic watershed management program. In this paper, using CRESSIDA as a case study, we show (1) how watershed projects designed with resilience-driven environmental health goals can work in context, (2) provide data surrounding contextualized problems with resilience and suggest tools and strategies for the implementation of projects to address these problems, and (3) explore how cross-boundary foci are central to the success of these approaches in watersheds that comprise several countries.</jats:p>

River Flow Alterations Caused by Intense Anthropogenic Uses and Future Climate Variability Implications in the Balkans

“…The extended Drin river basin is a transboundary river basin. Several efforts have been carried out in the past towards an efficient and sustainable water management of the area [9][10][11][12] as an important step towards the right direction but not adequate enough.…”

“…Quantification of the environmental flows in this area is a challenging task. The area is characterized by complexity regarding the water management related issues [9][10][11][12][13]. Moreover, the amount of energy produced by hydropower, especially in Albania, has steadily increased over the years, representing approximately 70% of the total hydro and thermal installed capacity in the country nowadays [14].…”

Perceived Health Impacts of Watershed Development Projects in Southern India: A Qualitative Study

“…Other aspects that should be explored further are migration and mental health impacts, which are relevant to drought-prone agricultural communities [60]. Using a resilience framework [61] or a health access livelihood framework [62] may help plan and study projects such as WSD. Quantitative studies through the use of appropriate methods such as structural equation models would further contribute to the understanding of the size of impacts of WSD projects, due to the presence of multiple impact pathways and multifactorial outcomes.…”

Water Resources Protection and Water Management Framework in Western Balkan Countries in Drina River Basin

“…In addition, management of the Drina River basin should ensure several important areas are still ecologically intact, some of which are part of Natura 2000. Complete Drina River basin is a challenging task and effectiveness of adopted measures largely depends on cross-border and regional cooperation, individual harmonization from local to national level, and additional harmonization of certain national priorities in the Drina River basin [8,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21].…”