Water Family Meeting and Symposium on Water Equity in South-East Europe and the Mediterranean 28-29 March 2019 Palazzo Zorzi, Venice (Italy) - Dragana Milovanović, Deputy Secretary for integrated river basin management and water planning, International Sava River Basin Commission

1. ISRBC – key activities and cooperation with
UNESCO
ISRBC Secretariat
Venice, March 28, 2019
UNESCO Water Family Meeting

2. 2
Sava River Basin – general info
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019
• Main facts & figures
– Area: 97 700 km2 (2nd Danube
sub-basin; share: 12%)
– River length: 945 km (594 km of
which is the waterway)
– Discharge (mouth)  1700 m3/s
(1st Danube tributary; contr. 25%)
– Population: approx. 9 million
Country Share of the
basin (%)
Share of the
territory (%)
Albania 0.2 0.6
Bosnia &
Herzegovina
39.2 75.8
Croatia 26.0 45.2
Montenegro 7.1 49.6
Serbia 15.5 17.4
Slovenia 12.0 52.8

3. 3UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019
Sava River Basin – general info

4. 44
Background of cooperation
• Relatively low degree of human intervention
• Need (and obligation) for environmental protection
• Need for economic development
• A balanced approach needed to use the potential and
preserve the values simultaneously
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019

5. 5
FASRB
• Geopolitical changes in the region in the 1990-ies
Sava: the largest national river  international river
 A need for a new, international framework to manage water resources on
the basin-wide level
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019
 Framework Agreement on the Sava River Basin (2004)
• Implementation coordinated by ISRBC (Secretariat – executive and
administrative body of ISRBC)
• Parties : Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia; Montenegro – MoU
• Key objective:
Sustainable development of the region
through transboundary water cooperation
• Specific goals – to establish:
– International regime of navigation
– Sustainable water management
– Sustainable management of hazards

6. 6
ISRBC
• Composed of 8 representatives of the 4 countries (one vote per country)
• Legal capacity
– Decisions (navigation) and recommendations (all other fields)
• Languages
– Official (3 official languages of B&H, Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian)
– Working (English)
• The only subregional mechanism of water
cooperation in the Danube river basin
• Expert groups
– Overall objective: assistance, guidance and coordination of all activities ISRBC in the respective
field
– Permanent expert groups
• River Basin Management
• Accident Prevention & Control
• Flood Prevention
• Navigation
• Hydrological and Meteorological Issues
• GIS
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019
– Ad hoc expert groups
• Legal Issues
• Financial Issues
• RIS (River Information
Services)

7. Stakeholder involvement
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019
• Wide range of stakeholders
• Participation through:
 Informing (web, publications...)
 Consultation (web, workshops, forums)
 Active involvement (observers)
• Sava Water Council
• Youth Parliament
– 2016: ”Living with floods”
– 2017: „Impact of Climate Change on the life in the Sava
RB”
– 2018: “Sustainable Tourism – Opportunity for the
Development of the Sava River Basin”
– 2019: “Let's cooperate for waters” May 31 - June 1, 2019
• web page: http://sava-youthparliament.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SavaYouth/
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8. River Basin Management
• Sava RBM Plan : Based on commonly
agreed Significant Water Management
Issues for the whole basin: pollution,
hydromorphologial alterations and
groundwater quality&quantity
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019 8
• Sava 2nd RBM planning cycle
– 2nd Sava River Basin Analysis
– Update of SWMIs
– Outline of the 2nd Sava RBM Plan drafted

9. Common H&H models
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019 9

10. Flood management
• Sava Flood Risk Management Plan (2017-2018)
• Flood Forecasting & Warning System (2016-2018)
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019 10

11. Navigation
• Technical standards and
safety of navigation
– Unification of rules
– RIS implementation
– Waterway marking
• Waterway rehabilitation
– Regulation of the sectors
Novi Grad (HR, BA), Kamičak (RS)
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019 11

12. 1212
Data and information exchange
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019
• Sava GIS (www.savagis.org) and Sava HIS - www.savahis.org
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Countries
Data
Providers
Hydro Gauges Meteo Gauges
Data
Policy
2014
Sava HIS
2018
Data Policy
2014
Sava HIS
2018
Bosnia and
Herzegovina FHMZFBIH 2 5 (5) 12 20 (20)
AVPSAVA 21 (8) 68 (68) - 10 (10)
RHMZRS 11 (1) 31 (19) 16 17 (16)
Croatia
DHMZ 22 (13) 131 (126) 11 49 (42)
Montenegro
ZHMS 2 11 (11) 3 5 (4)
Serbia
RHMZ 18 (13) 25 (20) 6 12 (10)
Slovenia
ARSO 17 (13) 32 (29) 5 76 (76)
Total
93 (48) 303 (278) 53 195 (178)

13. Cross-cutting issues
 Adaptation to Climate Change
- Outline of CC Adaptation Strategy
• Nexuses Sava and Drina
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019 13

14. Development issues
• Joint statement on regional cooperation on
development of sustainable tourism in the
Sava River Basin (Bled, June 15 2017)
– Task group for sustainable tourism established
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019
• Joint Plan of Action (Bled, June 15 2017)
- Milestone for integrated river basin
management and socioeconomic
development in the region
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15. 15151515
Relevance for other regions
• Interest for ISRBC approach
(Europe, Asia, Africa)
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019 15

16. 16
Cooperation
• Beyond the basin
– Institutions of EU, UNECE and other UN organizations
(UNESCO, UNDP, UNEP, WMO)
– River commissions (ICPDR, DC, ICPR, CCNR, etc.)
– Regional organizations / processes / initiatives
(OSCE, REC, RCC, SEETO, GWP, SECI, Danube Cooperation Process,
Petersberg Phase II / Athens Declaration Process)
– Professional organizations / networks
(PIANC, GIS Forum, SedNet)
– Financial institutions / funding programs
(WB, EBRD, EIB, WBIF, GIZ)
– NGOs (WWF, Euronatur)
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019

17. Cooperation with UNESCO
Project: Towards practical guidance for SSM
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019
• Main objectives:
– To develop and validate practical guidance to achieve SSM plan on the river basin scale
– Sava River Basin used as a showcase
• Partners:
• Project status:
 The practical SSM course (October 15-18, 2012)
 Application of the guidance in the Sava practice
– Estimation of Sediment Balance for the Sava River (BALSES) (2013)
– Proposal of the Establishment of the Sediment Monitoring System for the Sava River (2014)
– Execution on sediment monitoring
• Establishment of pilot hydrological stations for sediment monitoring (http://savahis.org,
http://savagis.org) (2016)
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18. Cooperation with UNESCO
Sava Youth Parliament (2014)
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019
• Main purpose
– Fostering awareness among the young population
• Participants
– Up to 60 young people (15-18 years) from Parties to
FASRB
• Theme for SYP 2014 in connection with H2Ooooh project
– “Water in the Sava River Basin- development and
protection”- cartoon scenarious
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19. Cooperation with UNESCO
Governance and Technology for Flood Risk Reduction
EU IREACT project
 Transboundary Training Workshop on Governance and Technology for Flood Risk
Reduction: Linking early warning to emergency management in the Sava
River Basin (Zagreb, 5-7 December 2017)
 Recommendations from the Workshop used within
the development of draft Flood Risk Management Plan
for the Sava River Basin
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019 19

20. Future cooperation
UNESCO Water Family Meeting, Venice, March 28, 2019
• Project SHELTER (ongoing) - Sustainable Historic Environments hoListic
reconstruction through Technological Enhancement and community based
Resilience (H2020)
– overall objective: to establish data driven and community based knowledge
and operational framework for resilience enhancement and sustainable
reconstruction of historic environments to cope with climate change and
natural hazards
– networking between different sectors (water/floods, cultural-historical heritage
and emergency management) and the continuous exchange of knowledge,
best practices and facilitate peer-learning processes to raise awareness
• Sustainable sediment management
– Further implementation of the project Towards practical guidance for SSM
• Plastics and Microplastics in SRB – challenges and solutions
• Other issues and projects off common interest
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21. Contact information
International Sava River Basin Commission
Kneza Branimira 29
10000 Zagreb
Croatia
www.savacommission.org
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