IDES - IDES - Project partners meet in Slovenia, in May 2022

03-07-2022

Representatives of all IDES project partners met in Moravske Toplice, Slovenia, for the first time after the lockdown was lifted. 32 participants updated each-other on their latest activities and established the way forward for the finalisation of the project.

On May 10 through 12, 2022, after months of meeting mostly online and in a hybrid form, the representatives of the organisations forming the consortium carrying the IDES project met physically in the Slovenian town of Moravske Toplice, near the banks of the river Mura.

There were 32 people present during the three days of the meeting that consisted in workshops and a field visit.

On the first day, after a welcome message from Dr. Barbara Stammel(CUEI) - the project manager - there were three workshops carried out. The first one was on communicating and promoting the project by trying to integrate information on it onto the public agenda. Social media strategies as well as methods of capitalising on other closed/ongoing projects were the main talking points leading to increasing project visibility.

Also, the idea of a sociological study was introduced, aiming at finding out how people feel about the relationship between rivers and human society and if they think there is a need to change something.

The next session was lead by Elisabeth Bondar-Kunze (BOKU-IHG) and Andreas Gericke (FVB.IGB) who presented their activities, talked about the integration of the IDES tool into other outputs (including a visualisation of how the tool will work) and presented an overview of their planned publications.

The last session of the day consisted in a training course on the IDES tool, carried out by Martin Tschikof (BOKU-IHG). During this session there was an overview of the training course program and the participants made a deep dive in the technical issues such as: the background of the tool, pressures in DRB, the RESI approach, difficulties in the tool display (as the stakeholders might have a hard time understanding the displayed information and its meaning). During the discussion, proposals were made about map display issues and about a different presentation of the IDES tool for stakeholders – an easier to understand one.

The second day started with a welcome address by Dr. Barbara Stammel, followed by an overview of WP T2 activities, sustained by Cristian-Mihai Adamescu (UB-RCSES). The issues discussed were: cooperating between WP’s, the organisation of the second stakeholder workshop (as water quality management concepts are done partially, they need to be discussed during this workshop)

One of the discussed conclusions was that when comparing harmonised ES, pressure results from surveys done between pilot areas. As a result, we come across some differences and also similarities.

The next session was dedicated to testing the second stakeholder workshop and was lead by Cristian-Mihai Adamescu. The participants worked in groups and performed overviews of results from first stakeholder workshop in Mental Modeler. There were discussions about the ways in which the organisers should present the purpose of the workshop to the stakeholders and also about how to simplify the scenarios so that stakeholders would understand what is expected from them.

Next, Dr. Barbara Stammel, facilitated a session about the IDES manual - which partner is responsible for each part of the manual and the estimated deadlines for specific parts.

After a presentation of the Natura Mura Project by Aleksander Koren (IRSNC), there was an overview of WP T3 activities by Dávid Béla Vizi (KÖTIVIZIG), who proposed the organising of a meeting in October, in Budapest, for the stakeholders.

The third day started with a session on the WP T2 strategy, by Dávid Béla Vizi, about going through working content and deadlines, editorial meetings and coordination of deadlines. After Dr. Barbara Stammel went through an overview of WP’s (budget spending, performed activities), the formal program ended with an open discussion mainly centered on the final conference in Bucharest.

The partner meeting ended with field trip in the Mura pilot area.

List of the project partners representatives: Miha Varga, ZGS, Leon Horvat, ZGS, Petra Dremelj, ZGS, Peter Suhadolnik, IZVRS, Klemen Šavli, IZVRS, Mitja Peček, IZVRS, Nikoletta Szántó, KÖTIVIZIG, Valér Horvai, South Transdanubian Water Directorate, Dávid Vizi, KÖTIVIZIG , György Rátfai, KÖTIVIZIG , Norbert Csatári, General Directorate of Water Management of Hungary, Judit Palatinus, KÖTIVIZIG, Annamária Szilágyi, KÖTIVIZIG, Madalina COZMA, MoEnv, Carmen NEAGU, MoEnv, Constantin Cazacu, UB-RCSES, Cristian-Mihai Adamescu, UB-RCSES, Barbara Stammel, CUEI, Tim Borgs, CUEI, Julia Stäps, CUEI, Martin Tschikof, BOKU-IHG, Elisabeth Bondar-Kunze, BOKU-IHG, Ekaterina Batchvarova, CAWRI-BAS, Galia Bardarska, CAWRI-BAS, Zorica Srdjevic, FAUNS, Bojan Srdjevic, FAUNS, Pavel Benka, FAUNS, Milica Ilić, FAUNS, Adrian Lungu, WWF Romania, Camelia Ionescu, WWF Romania, Martin Pusch, FVB.IGB, Andreas Gericke, FVB.IGB, Gabriela Costea, FVB.IGB.

Programme co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA, ENI)