Following the initiative an expert meeting and a high level meeting took place in Budapest between 30 November and 1 December 2002 attended by six prime ministers, foreign minister of Austria, several ministers, numerous high level professionals from European countries and several international organisations involved in water, like the European Commission, NATO, GWP, REC, WWF, ICPDR, Danube Commission, etc.
The joint statement accepted by the heads of delegations emphasised that "natural disasters should be considered in a broader sustainable development framework by taking into account the interrelated environmental, social and economic dimensions, and the relevant scientific results." The meeting ended with a general understanding that it was the beginning of a broader international cooperation.
In recent years, a number of actions have been in progress to mitigate the effects of disasters globally and in Europe, including the publication of the UN-ECE Guidelines on sustainable flood prevention, the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, the World Water Forum in 2003 and the publication of the Best Practice Document on Flood Prevention, Protection and Mitigation, under the auspices of the Water Directors of the European Union, Norway, Switzerland and the candidate countries. A wide range of activities has been performed within the frame of the international river basin commissions, too.
The importance of the issue is emphasized by the United Nations World Water Development Report published in 2003 ascertaining that there is a trend of increasing natural disasters. The number of hydrometeorological disasters (floods and droughts) has more than doubled since 1996. Floods caused 15 percent of deaths and droughts 42 percent of deaths from all natural disasters.
As it was seen in Central Europe in summer 2002, industrialised nations can also be affected immensely, especially as far as damage is concerned. Other experiences show that there is a large number of areas where floods can occur any time of the year and be followed by severe droughts within a short period of time.
An international core group meeting was held in Budapest on the 8th March 2004 to get mutual understanding on how to promote this process and on the specific issues to be highlighted on the second Conference of the Budapest Initiative on 27-28 April.
Referring to the set of objectives defined in the Joint Statement of the Budapest Initiative in 2002, such as:
Detailed discussion of topics especially important to the endeavours, namely
- to support expert consultation of the Best Practice Document (BPD)
- to discuss the ways of implementing the Best Practice Document
- to emphasize that the approach of the BPD concerning water retention, also serves the aims of balanced hydrologic regimes by managing problems of abundance and lack of water
- to integrate the approach of the UN-ECE guidelines and that of the BPD related to non-structural measures with landscape management and sustainable regional development based on adequate land use
- To reach a common position, and promoting co-operation related to the mentioned documents
- To prepare proposals for further actions. With the contribution of experts from fourteen countries, several international institutions and different stakeholders, the Conference made the following recommendations:
1 Water managers face increased expectations from society and this must be addressed with special attention. A holistic river basin approach has to be applied, with the preventive role of spatial planning, harmonising integrated water resources management, nature conservation and sustainable land use.
2 Access to timely and reliable hydrological, meteorological and other information is needed for successful flood management, therefore countries should share this information free of charge. Decision-makers should support this process.
3 The inclusion of a wide range of stakeholders (different professional and scientific fields, representatives of governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations) into the planning and decision making process is essential. Awareness raising and education helps citizens understand the nature and characteristics of flood and ultimately contribute to the decrease of human and property losses. Information and communication is a prerequisite of effective flood management and public support for necessary measures.
4 When developing flood-aware land use patterns stakeholders should be informed, trained and encouraged with proper incentives to support adaptation to the new and sustainable conditions both in terms of ecology and economy, and to apply technologies corresponding to sound and reasonable utilization of natural resources and acknowledge the long term benefits of this approach.
5 Transnational co-operation and exchanging experiences among countries are keys to successful management of floods in international basins. The ongoing efforts revealed several good practices in this field. This know-how could be a mutual benefit and should be developed further.
6 Control at the source plays an important role in flood peak attenuation, in decreasing runoff and in pollution control during flood periods, therefore flood-aware land use and landscape management should be applied throughout the drainage basin.
7 Regional interdependencies and the local conditions always have to be considered and methods should be adapted to these. There is no blueprint to all cases.
8 Societies must be prepared for the challenges of climate change and this requires visionary thinking and a long term planning process. Better adaptation to climate change and to increasing meteorological hazards needs continuous dialogue between regional and urban planners, rural development planners, nature conservationists, forest, water and disaster managers, meteorologists, representatives of regional and local governments and the civil society.
9 We must build on existing processes and endeavours such as:
- the Guidelines on Sustainable Flood prevention prepared and disseminated by the UNECE in 2000;
- the Best Practice Document on Flood Prevention, Protection and Mitigation of the Water Directors of the EU, Norway, Switzerland and the candidate countries;
- the recommendations of the Budapest Initiative;
and channel these forces into one effective flow.
10 We support the application of the BPD concerning water retention to serve balanced hydrologic regimes, by managing problems of abundance and lack of water. The vast economic losses due to drought in large areas in Europe in 2003 revealed the vulnerability of countries to drought events. Therefore joint and coordinated actions should be started to revise preparedness against severe droughts as well as floods. Recommendations for floods and droughts should be linked to ensure a holistic approach, where appropriate measures could benefit the management of both of these extraordinary situations.
11 Derived from the aims of the Budapest Initiative, we recommend the integration of the approach of the Guidelines and that of the BPD related to non-structural measures with spatial planning, landscape management and sustainable regional development based on adequate land use.
12 It is our common interest to chart up the inherent values and benefits of the development of international co-operation in the prevention and management of environmental risk in order to ensure long term social and economic prosperity in Europe and to contribute to solving global challenges.
The participants of the Conference agreed to inform the various international organisations and bodies on this cooperation, in particular, the EU, NATO, OECD, the 24 UN bodies cooperating under UN-WATER, in particular UNECE, UN-ISDR UN-OCHA, UNEP, UNDP, UNESCO, WMO and WHO; GWP, CEUDIP, standing bodies of the relevant conventions, regional and sub-regional organisations.
They also underlined the open character of their cooperation, thus inviting new partners to join the common endeavours.
These Joint Recommendations, with the aim of offering inputs, will be brought to the attention of the UNECE Seminar on Flood Prevention, Protection and Mitigation to be held in Berlin on June 21-22, 2004 and to the EU Informal Council Meeting to be held on July 16-18, in Maastricht.
The Budapest Initiative, in accordance with its mission and the principles agreed upon in the Joint Statement in 2002 and in the above recommendations, will be continued with all parties involved, in order to promote integrated flood management in the broader framework of sustainable development.
Adopted in Budapest, on 28 April, 2004
Budapest Initiative
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