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Transboundary Drought Risk Management - an application to the Guadiana River Basin (TransDRiM)
Start date: Oct 1, 2013, End date: Sep 30, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

TransDRiM is an advanced training and research project focused on transboundary drought management at the river basin scale, in the context of the Water Framework Directive implementation.The proposed methodologies are applied to the Guadiana river basin, the fourth largest within the Iberian Peninsula, where shared watersheds between Portugal and Spain account for over 2/3 of its territory. The Guadiana is of particular interest because of its relative aridity, water scarcity, and high drought risk conditions.A political agreement (the Albufeira Convention) regulates cooperation and conflicts on water issues between the two countries, but an exception regime is applied under drought conditions – thus, when most needed, common management is reduced to a minimum. Furthermore, water planning remains strictly at the national level, and public participation continues to be insignificant, contrary to the WFD guidelines.TransDRiM seeks to minimize environmental, social and economic impacts of cross-border drought events, reduce potential conflicts on water uses and availability between both riparian countries, and provide a methodological framework for transboundary drought risk management across EU river basins.In order to reach these goals, the following specific research objectives will be pursued: Identify the potential and constraints for a transboundary policy of drought risk management; Assess the compatibility of the two national planning structures; Provide technical solutions to establish a transboundary and operational drought management framework; Assess the feasibility of transboundary drought response measures proposed, based on their economic, political and social criteria.TransDRiM will address these tasks based on a territorial and interdisciplinary approach, learning from both the host experience in the subject, the tailored training programme based on GIS and other integrative tools, and the researcher ability to work on an international context.
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