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The purpose of this paper is to examine the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive. It seeks first to determine whether its provisions align with modern thinking on integrated river basin management and second to assess the degree to which it has the potential to achieve legislative and inter‐agency integration throughout the Union.

This is a desktop study. The paper draws upon theories and definitions of integrated river basin management and internal integration in existing literature and then proceeds to examine the provisions of the Water Framework Directive in the light of the models identified.

The framework for river basin management in the Water Framework Directive does not fully match the modern approach to integrated river basin management. The directive is limited by its primary focus upon the single medium of water, and its consequent failure to fully address wider land use planning issues. It, therefore, also fails to achieve integration between all relevant legislative instruments. It provides a framework for stakeholder involvement that could potentially serve the goal of inter‐agency integration. However, due to the high level of discretion in the hands of member states, there is likely to be a substantial divergence of practice across the EU.

In assessing the Water Framework Directive against modern notions of river basin management and the directive's stated integrative aspirations, the paper informs implementation and practice in member states.

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the challenges for public participation in river basin management and planning and to develop a set of guidelines for a successful public consultation.

The current paper describes and analyses the requirements and expectations regarding public participation in river basin planning and identifies some obstacles and recommendations for the process.

The research carried out identified a wide range of challenges for the practical implementation of the public involvement in river basin planning as stated in the Water Framework Directive. The involvement of the public is critical for a successful implementation of the Water Framework Directive. Hence, public participation is greatly emphasised in the Directive. Article 14 of the Water Framework Directive requires that Member States encourage involvement of all stakeholders into the implementation process, especially into the River Basin Management Planning.

The paper may assist river basin managers to design, perform and evaluate the public consultation of river basin management plans.

The paper analyses the obstacles for the public consultation as part of the Water Framework Directive implementation. Based on the analysis the paper defines a range of guidelines and recommendations for the practical consultation design. This work is original, as no such analysis has been carried out before.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the prospects of integrated planning and management of the environment in the context of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and river basin planning.

The paper analyses the legal framework of the WFD and other related water and environmental legislation as well as the provisions for integrative practice in the WFD. Moreover it analyses the potential for integration with issues that are not provided for in the WFD, such as land use. The procedural elements of the WFD and other EU legislation are analysed for identifying common elements within a modern consensus and efficiency based planning mode.

Three aspects of the integrated management framework for water and other environmental resources are highlighted. The first concerns the need for interaction between spatial land use planning and the integrated river basin management plans of the WFD, in order to ensure that land‐use plans do not contradict water goals and that water planning also takes into account broader landscape related aspects. This demands the establishment of platforms for institutional interplay. The second is the need to integrate water goals into sectoral policies. This may be ensured by activating the impact assessment procedures for projects, plans and programmes which may have an impact on water resources and quality. The third concerns elements and procedures which are common to several pieces of legislations (e.g. management plans, monitoring, public participation), and which could benefit from the establishment of common databases, spatial information systems, and methods of communication.

The paper aims to identify key issues related to integration of the WFD with other environmental EU legislation, the associated challenges posed to water management and other environmental management institutions and procedures, and the information systems and methods which may facilitate the integration.

The purpose of the paper is to present a scenario‐based approach to river basin planning, and demonstrate how land‐use planning can be utilised as a strong measure in meeting the climate change challenges with new precipitation patterns during the current century.

The current research takes a scenario‐based approach to river basin planning. A modelling framework is defined to assess the effects of active spatial planning to mitigate the negative consequences of climate change in river basin management. In total, three models are included in the framework: a land‐use model, a runoff model, and a flooding screening model.

The research has demonstrated the advantages of using models and scenarios to assess the effects of climate change in river basin management, and how active spatial planning – in the current example afforestation – can mitigate negative consequences of climate change.

The current research demonstrates how to combine models from different fields into one integrated model for impact assessment.

The developed methodology will assist river basin managers to assess the effects of river basin management plans.

The consequences of climate change are mainstream topics discussed by most citizens and results from the models can facilitate a qualified debate.

The paper analyses the feasibility of using active spatial planning to mitigate the negative consequences of climate change, such as flooding along rivers. This work is original, as no such analysis has been carried out before.

Given that the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) calls for the management of water resources at the river basin level, the German water sector, which has historically been dominated by the federal states and has been organized along administrative borders, is now challenged to be reorganized. The article introduces the German water sector, reviews past experiences with river basin management such as North Rhine–Westphalia's water associations, the river basin organizations of the former German Democratic Republic, and international river commissions, and addresses current challenges in connection with the implementation of WFD.

In strategic planning and management of environmental resources, traditional multicriteria analysis is usually adopted for evaluating alternative development scenarios against a set of criteria. However, the modeling of the problem is often inadequate for representing the complexity which characterizes the decision. To overcome this problem, this paper aims to suggest the application of an advanced version of the analytic hierarchy process: the analytic network process (ANP).

The ANP is the first mathematical approach that makes it possible to systematically deal with all kinds of dependencies and feedback among elements. It requires the identification of a network of clusters and nodes, as well as pair‐wise comparison to establish relations within the network elements. The number of comparisons is dependent on the number of interrelations among the elements.

The method is applied to the Strategic Management Plan of the River Po Basin in Italy. The result obtained is a surprising ranking which places major weight on the cultural heritage and landscape rather than on traditional environmental categories, such as land and water. This result reflects the recent River Po Basin Authority strategy to institute an integrated and coordinated policy action in the field.

The proposed approach has improved the integration of the strategic evaluation in the decision‐making process within the management of territorial development policies, thanks to a better representation of the interrelations among issues within the decision model.

The purpose of this paper is to set out the policy guidelines and recommendations to harmonise the Serbian water legislation with European Union standards in the area of water system management as impacted by climate change.

The EU Water Framework Directive is analysed in the context of implementation of the integrated water management policy presented in the Serbian Water Law (2010), as well as the National Water Management Strategy (2016). It has been found that the water management legislation that deals with the impact of climate change on water resources is incomplete. Although there are numerous challenges related to research of climate change and water systems, water policy and legal aspects cannot be neglected. The so-called soft law instruments represented in a form of strategy documents could be a valuable response in terms of an adaptive and integrated water policy approach.

The research is applied to a case study of the Velika Morava River Basin, at Ljubicevski Most hydrological station. Long-term projections suggest a decrease in annual precipitation levels and annual flows up to the year 2100 for climatic scenarios A1B and A2, accompanied by a rapid increase in air temperatures.

This study proposes a water management policy and provides recommendations for the Velika Morava River Basin as impacted by climate change, according to the European Union legislation.

This paper aims to assess whether governance processes that are taking place in the Chinchiná River basin, a coffee culture region in the Andean region of Colombia, are adaptive to climate variability and climate extremes.

A mixed research method was used by reviewing secondary research sources surrounding the institutional governance system of water governance and disaster response and semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with producers and members of organizations within the institutional governance system.

This study found that there is a low response to extreme events. Hopefully, the growing national awareness and activity in relation to climate change and disaster will improve response and be downscaled into these communities in the future. Although, some learning has occurred at the national government level and by agricultural producers who are adapting practices, to date no government institution has facilitated social learning taking into account conflict, power and tactics of domination.

This paper improves the understanding of the vulnerability of rural agricultural communities to shifts in climate variability. It also points out the importance of governance institutions in enhancing agricultural producer adaptive capacity.

Sustainable use of water, which is one of the most important natural renewable resources in Bosnia and Herzegovina, should be a priority and an integrative objective of sustainable development. In accordance to that, it is necessary to provide the satisfactory amount of water of an adequate quality for various purposes, to reduce damage from water, and to achieve a good ecological potential of water, thus ensuring the sustainability of this resource, at the same time not jeopardizing the ecosystems that depend on it.

Encouraging irrigation, especially of small farmland and orchards, careful construction of small hydropower plants, the development of fisheries and tourism on and by the water, much greater use of mineral and thermal waters, and other possibilities provided by unused renewable resources in Bosnia and Herzegovina provide significant opportunities to develop an environmentally friendly economy. Application of the principles of sustainable development and set goals requires more precise definition and putting into a clear economic, environmental, social, and institutional context.

Water protection is one of the primary objectives of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC. The paper aims to identify suitable indices for water quality and specifically for water used for irrigation in the Fratta‐Gorzone river basin (Northern Italy) affected by discharges from the largest tannery district in Italy.

The DPSIR framework is proposed here for the development of a water quality monitoring and control system. A set of indices is applied as a comprehensive environmental management system in order to: assess the degree of achievement of water quality objectives; identify measures to be applied to pressure sources; verify the extent of application of local measures.

The highest values measured in the river Fratta‐Gorzone refer to the following parameters: chemical oxygen demand (COD), chlorides, sulphates, chromium, E. coli and, in some cases, other parameters. At basin level, the objectives set by the WFD and by local regulations must be achieved by applying appropriate discharge limit values. Water quality for irrigation use and the impact of the tannery district is critically presented and discussed according to available data, and refers to the monitoring project which was developed as a result.

The inflow from an irrigation channel, which conducts freshwater from the Adige river to the Fratta‐Gorzone river and empties just beyond the discharge point for effluent from the tannery district, favoured a general improvement in river water quality, as a result of dilution, particularly for irrigation purposes.

An environmental management system is outlined, with a proposal for a specific set of indices to be used as part of the monitoring and control activities for the integrated management of river basins, especially those affected by industrial tannery discharges.