Meuse, Roer, Elbe, Sava, Western Bug and Tisza-Somes) represented by 15 selected partners. Overall objective of the project is identification, sharing and transfer of good practices on sustainable cross-border flood management in European river basins, using the instruments of the FRMD. Therefore, the project is divided in three phases, following the steps of the FRMD and addressing the three different flood risk management tools: a. Flood risk assessment, b. Flood risk mapping, c. Flood risk management plans. The overall objective is reinforced by the integration of other EU directives and national policies, taking into account the hydrological, ecological and socio-economic functions of the river.By incorporating the cultural and political dimensions, carrying out pilot actions, the project is expected to result in a higher willingness of responsible authorities to develop harmonized or joint flood strategies and policy measures across borders within the frameworks of EU and national policies and regulation. The project will result in river basin reports on flood related issues, good practices and solutions, joint recommendations to the European Commission, Member States and relevant stakeholders, a digital information exchange platform and actions plans per river basin for the future implementation of the project’s results. Achievements: Flood risk assessment in border areas: What is a ‘significant’ flood risk? Do our definitions match? Are sufficient and relevant data available and accessible across borders? In the 2nd half of 2010 the FLOOD-WISE partners made an inventory of existing flood risk assessment methods on both sides of the border in the Elbe, Meuse, Rur, Sotla, Somes and Bug rivers. Differences and similarities between the river basins were discussed during an interregional partner meeting on 18-20 October in Wlodawa, Poland. Exchange and knowledge transfer meeting were held in Maastricht in March and in Schwammenauel in May 2011. In April 2011 the 2nd partner meeting was held in Dresden, visiting the Elbe River basin. Here the first results of the flood risk mapping (phase 2 of the FLOOD-WISE project) were presented. This phase was finalized in the summer of 2011 and presented at the 3rd Partner meeting in October 2011 in Cluj-Napoca for most River Basins. The results of phase 3, listing measures and drawing the first draft cross border flood risk management plans will be ready by the 4th Partner meeting in Rogaška-Slatina (RO) in April 2012. Challenges of cross border cooperation in flood risk assessment: The main conclusion drawn by partners during the 1st interregional partner meeting was that harmonization in border areas starts with common objectives. The Flood Risk Management Directive (FRMD) neither gives a hint towards possible appropriate objectives nor measures suited to fulfil these objectives. FLOOD-WISE partners are of the opinion that a catalogue of potential objectives and connected measures would be useful. The following practical recommendations for authorities who are implementing the Directive in international river basins were drafted: • Definition of ‘flood’: synchronize causes to be taken into account (overflow of rivers, rising groundwater, run off, coastal waters, sewers, dam failures, etc.) Definition of ‘significance’: agree on vulnerability criteria in border regions • Match scenarios: agree on how to match high, medium and low probability at the border • How to deal with climate change effects: clarify different ways of taking long term developments and climate change into account on both sides of the border. • Match assumptions: agree on how to deal with differences in modelling assumptions and xyz-coordinates. Good practice example: The German LAWA-method was identified as a good practice example for preliminary flood risk assessment. Especially the so-called ’upstream rule’ can be recommended for countries in a cross border river basin. Significant criteria in both countries need to be respected. This upstream rule is already implemented in the Netherlands as a good policy and included in the application document of the FRMD in the NL.WISE-RTD portal will be extended for EU Flood Directive: Within the framework of the FLOOD-WISE project the existing WISE-RTD portal has been extended with an entry structure for the FRMD. The WISE-RTD consortium was contracted to carry out this task. A supervision group consisting of several FLOOD-WISE partners guided the WISE-RTD consortium. The first test-version of the database was presented in April 2011 during the 2nd partner meeting in Dresden, and tested in a workshop with the FLOOD-WISE partners. The final version was ready by the 3rd Partner Meeting in Oct.2011. Since then many relevant FLOOD-WISE documents (sub-reports phases 1 and 2) and good practices were up-loaded and are now available for the public through WISE-RTD.