Implementation of River Basin Management Plans: Current Issues and Future Needs

In October 2012, spatial planners from the Irish border region, as well as scientists, policy-makers and researchers held a workshop in Monaghan Town to review the opportunities and challenges in the management of river basins, and in particular, those that cross jurisdictional boundaries. Since the adoption of River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) in 2010 for the eight river basin districts on this island, there remain numerous challenges in terms of implementing these plans. The participants at this half-day workshop (see Annex 1) also discussed practical steps that can be undertaken to strengthen the understanding and the linkages between spatial planning and river basin management. Issues addressed during the workshop included: What RBMP's mean in practice for local authority planners and what further refinement of information is needed to influence river basin management plans within the border region; Are there particular aspects to managing the cross-border elements of the International River Basins that need to be addressed? How to best support the preparation of the next cycle of River Basin Management plans due to commence in December 2012 and completed for 2015. The workshop was organised by the Border Regional Authority (BRA) and the International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD) as part of a follow-up to a series of action research reports and documentation of good practices in river basin management by the ICLRD1. The reports were part of ICLRD’s CroSPlaN I programme, an INTERREG IVA funded-project administered by the SEUPB. These reports, together with some of the presentations from the workshop are available on the ICLRD website (www.iclrd.org).