EULAKES – European Lakes Under Environmental Stressors

The project consisted of the combination of vulnerability and risk assessment, monitoring and participative planning. The overall aim of the project was to involve all the interested stakeholders into the lake management and the related activities; thereby, fighting against climate change and other environmental stressors.

Objective of the project:

The aim of the project was to support the sustainable management of Central European lakes by fostering new, integrated approach.

The EULAKES project (financed by Central Europe) supported the sustainable management of Central European lakes through an integrated approach and a transnational partnership, between research centres and local communities. To respond to climate change and other environmental stressors, the project aimed at identifying a governance model that combined environmental monitoring, risk and environmental fragility assessment and a system of participatory planning.

The four lakes involved in the project – Lake Garda (Italy), Lake Balaton (Hungary), Lake Neusiedl (Austria) and Lake Charzykowskie (Poland) – are so called multipurpose lake. In fact, they served as potential habitats for indigenous wildlife, drinking water sources and had high recreational capacity. In the last ten years, the ecosystems of all these lakes were showing significant increasing vulnerability. In particular, they suffered the impact of climate change, which added to problems related to land use, tourism, water quality, ecological biodiversity and new invasive species.

In order to evaluate different climate change scenarios, which consider the lakes’ ecological status and environmental risk, the project harmonized vulnerability and risk assessment methods.

The project contributed to:

  • support the development and implementation of long-term lake management plans which emphasize natural resources conservation, management and adaptation,
  • promote the sustainable management of the lakes natural resources through an innovative multi-stakeholder platform,
  • build awareness among local communities and different economic and political sectors;
  • improve collaboration with other Central European lake regions.

Partners:

Lake Garda Community, Italy (Lead Partner)

Environmental protection agency of Trento (APPA), Italy

Edmund Mach Foundation (IASMA FEM), Italy

National Research Council Institute for electromagnetic sensing of the environment (CNR – IREA), Italy

Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH (AIT), Austria

Austrian League of Nature Conservation (BURGENLAND), Austria

University of Pannonia, Hungary

Lake Balaton Development Coordination Agency (LBDCA), Hungary

Institute of Meteorology and Water Management-National Research Institute (IMGW-PIB), Poland

 

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