SPARE: Strategic Planning for Alpine Riverine Ecosystems – Integrating protection and development

 

SPARE

General information about the project

Full project title: Strategic Planning for Alpine Riverine Ecosystems – Integrating protection and development

Project title in Slovenian: Strateško načrtovanje in usklajevanje na področju ohranjanja in obnove alpskih rečnih ekosistemov

Project acronym: SPARE

Project code: ASP170

Programme: Interreg Alpine Space

 

Rivers are the lifelines of sustainable development in the Alps. They provide clean drinking water for human use and irrigation for agriculture, they are home to a myriad of organisms, they provide recreation opportunities, and their power helps us to produce energy. Alpine rivers can only provide these and other services to society if we take care of them, on the basis of comprehensive stream management. The SPARE (Strategic Planning for Alpine River Ecosystems) project aims at contributing to a further harmonization of human use requirements and protection needs. Nine project partners from six Alpine countries show how strategic approaches for the protection and management of rivers can be improved across administrative and disciplinary borders, and promote awareness of the services provided by Alpine rivers, as well as their vulnerability. SPARE lasts from December 2015 to December 2018 and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg Alpine Space programme.

 

SPARE contributes to a further harmonization of protection needs and human use requirements. The main aims are to:

  1. increase the awareness and knowledge level of the functions and services healthy rivers provide
  2. improve existing river management practices by integrating ecosystems services and participatory approaches
  3. enable decision makers and river managers to select and apply strategic planning approaches according to their needs.

The main activities we are implementing within SPARE are to:

  1. provide a pan-Alpine overview of priority rivers with high protection need
  2. collect examples of successful river management in the Alps
  3. enable river managers in five pilot case study areas to plan, apply and evaluate participatory methods
  4. test integrated and participatory river management approaches
  5. make the lessons learnt from the collected river management examples and from the case studies available for other Alpine rivers
  6. provide an interactive action and policy support platform called “SPARE-LIVE”, including a decision and participation workflow, an e-learning facility on integrative river management practices for stakeholders at all levels, and a database of successful river management examples.

Duration of the project:

16.12.2015 – 15.12.2018

Related content:

  1. SPARE
  2. Interreg Alpine Space

Project partners:

BOKU – Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (A, vodilni partner), ARPA VDA – Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente della Valle d’Aosta (I), IzVRS – Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia (SI), IRSTEA – Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l’environnement et l’agriculture (F), ARPAV – Agenzia Regionale per la Prevenzione e Protezione Ambientale del Veneto (I), Water Management Planning upper Austria – Land Oberösterreich (A), SMRD – Syndicat Mixte de la Rivière Drôme et de ses affluents (F), CIPRA – Commission Internationale pour la Protection des Alpes (LI), PTE – Fundaziun Pro Terra Engiadina (CH).

Slovenian associated partners:

Slovenian Environmental Agency, Fisheries Research Institute of Slovenia, Soča River Foundation, Soške elektrarne Nova Gorica, Slovenian Water Agency.

About the project

Total project budget

1.964.142,06 EUR

ERDF co-financing (85%)

1.669.520,75 EUR

Own contribution (15%)

294.621,31 EUR

 

Total IzVRS budget

306.825,01 EUR

ERDF co-financing (85%)

260.801,26 EUR

Own contribution – MESP (15%)

46.023,75 EUR

Project Manager

mag. Sašo Šantl

Project staff

Klemen Šavli

Uroš Robič

Contact

Uroš Robič

003861 47 75 328

uros.robic@izvrs.si

OTHER INTERNATIONAL REFERENCES

Expert bases for determining the priorities of the Republic of Slovenia in the field of environment and efficient use of resources and identification of the themes that are most suitable for co-financing from the LIFE program

In the framework of the project task, we prepared guidelines on the thematic priorities from the Multi-annual LIFE work program for the period 2014–2017 in the priority area Environment and efficient use of resources, and Environmental management and information for Lot 1: water, including the marine environment. The thematic priorities...

Remote sensing of large river hydromorphological characteristics and impact assessment on biotic communities

The project’s aim is to identify and compare impacts of different stressors (hydromorphological alterations, pollution, land use), acting on different spatial scales (reach, segment, catchment), on benthic macroinvertebrate and fish communities in Slovenian large rivers, as well as to analyse the comparability between field survey and remote sensing based hydromorphological...