Public Participation under the EU Water Framework Directive – processes and possible outcomes

Implementation of the Water Framework Directive in an Outermost EU Region: The Case of Azores Archipelago

The Azores Water Plan (AWP) came to force in year 2003 in order to provide a coherent set of measures to protect and enhance water resources in the archipelago. The AWP was developed according to EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and a close relationship can be found between goals on both documents. The evaluation of results associated to AWP implementation, made possible through a consultatio...

Decision - Making in the European Water Framework Directive : the Potential Consequences of a Neoclassical Approach

The paper focuses on the decision-making process in the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). The WFD is an important piece of legislation, which will decide the quality of the EU aquatic environment for the foreseeable future. The main environmental goal of the Directive is good ecological status, to be achieved by 2015. The paper highlights the central role disproportionate cost analysis (DCA),...

Public Participation and the European Water Framework Directive

The Sustainable Procedure Framework for Disaster Risk Management: Illustrated by the Case of the EU Floods Directive in Sweden

How can the concrete meaning of the ambiguous and theoretical concept of sustainable development (SD) be defined and implemented, without losing sight of its fundamental principles? This study introduces a theoretical framework that supports studies of SD implementation in the context of strategic disaster risk management, by defining what SD implies with regard to planning procedures. The fram...

Some Methodological Concepts to Analyse the Role of IC-tools in Social Learning Processes

The Water Framework Directive requires to include public besides the water experts and policy makers into development and implementation of River Basin Management (RBM) plans (see Article 14). In such a context, the EU research project HarmoniCOP, studies a method to improve Public Participation based on Social Learning (SL) concepts. SL refers to the growing capacity of a social network to dev...