The seminar opened with a summary of the Valencia event, where discussions had centered on best practices and governance challenges. This set the tone for an exchange of ideas and tools during the seminar, including the presentation of the GOVAQUA assessment tool and a series of forward-looking governance innovations.
Organisers of the Govaqua EURO-INBO 2024 event.
Key highlights
Reflections from Valencia 2023: Participants revisited key findings from the previous event, including lessons learned from stakeholder engagements and examples of innovative governance approaches.
The GOVAQUA assessment tool: This new tool, designed to evaluate water governance at the catchment level, was a major focus of the seminar. It has already been tested in GOVAQUA’s living labs and aims to enhance transparency, inclusivity, and collaboration in water management.
Innovative governance practices: Presentations covered critical topics, such as water allocation and ecological flows, economic instruments, social innovation, citizen engagement, and digital tools. These were complemented by insights from the WaterGovernance2027 Horizon Europe projects GOVAQUA, InnWater and RETOUCH NEXUS.
Interactive sessions: Participants engaged in interactive discussions, using Wooclap to share real-time feedback on governance tools and explore how these could be adapted to their own contexts. The discussions revealed strong interest in participatory approaches and also highlighted challenges, such as ensuring accessible data and effective stakeholder coordination.
Key messages
The seminar reinforced the importance of effective governance as a foundation for addressing major water-related challenges, including droughts and floods. Key takeaways included:
- Strengthening regulatory frameworks and improving cross-sector collaboration are essential steps.
- Economic instruments, such as water pricing, can play a pivotal role in ensuring sustainable resource management.
- Social innovation and citizen engagement must be prioritized to create more inclusive governance systems.
- Digital tools and open data platforms are critical for improving transparency and supporting informed decision-making.
Next steps
As the GOVAQUA project moves forward, the assessment tool will continue to be tested and refined in living labs across Europe. The next milestone will be a workshop in Parma, Italy, in 2025, within the Europe INBO conference andfocusing on transition pathways toward sustainable water governance.
Presentations available here (oieau.org).