HARMONICOP

HARMONIzing COllaborative Planning

MAIN OBJECTIVE

The main objective of the HarmoniCOP project is to increase the understanding of participatory river basin management in Europe.

It aims to generate practically useful information about and improve the scientific base of social learning in river basin management and support the implementation of the public participation provisions of the Water Framework Directive

PUBLIC AND STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATION

Public and stakeholder participation refers to the active involvement of individual citizens, individual companies, public interest groups and economic interest groups in decision making.

Communication and information flows are important aspects of PP. Information and communication tools are of major importance.

SOCIAL LEARNINGIt is argued here that transformation

and change, and processes of social learning are of major importance if the sustainability of current resource management regimes is to be improved.

However, the theoretical base for social learning is still fragmented. This must be attributed to the fact that an interdisciplinary, system-oriented approach is missing in the social sciences.

SOCIAL LEARNINGSocial learning is based on the idea that

social change requires• critical self-reflection,• the development of participatory, multi-

scale, democratic processes,• reflexive capabilities of individuals and

societies,• the capacity of social movements to shape

the political and economic boundary conditions towards improvement of the current situation.

SOCIAL LEARNINGSocial learning with respect to sustainable

development is based on the participatory processes of social change and societal transformations with the aim of

• making clear the goals and stakes that are involved in transformation processes,

• achieve better (because democratic) solutions to environmental problems,

• thus fostering the implementation of measures that have been agreed upon,

• and better manage conflicts.

ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL LEARNING 1

Processes of social learning should contain the following elements

• Build up a shared problem perception in a group of actors, in particular when the problem is largely ill-defined (this does not imply consensus building).

• Build trust as base for a critical self-reflection, which implies recognition of individual mental frames and images and how they pertain to decision making.

ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL LEARNING 2

• Recognize mutual dependencies and interactions in the actor network.

• Reflect on assumptions about the dynamics and cause-effect relationships in the system to be managed.

• Reflect on subjective valuation schemes.

• Engage in collective decision- and learning processes (this may include the development of new management strategies, and the introduction of new formal and informal rules).

INNOVATION 1

• HarmoniCOP will give a comprehensive overview and analysis of the state of art in the participatory RBMP in Europe, using a social learning perspective.

• HarmoniCOP will address the scale issue in PP and RBMP in a systematic way.

INNOVATION 2• HarmoniCOP will approach information and

information tools as a means for social learning in participatory RBMP.

• HarmoniCOP will do all this while considering the different national contexts – cultural, geographical, institutional an legal.

• The proposed research will specifically deal with the challenges posed by the WFD

RBMP AND SCALE

RBMP as a sequence of interactions at different scales (stylised, assuming a large international basin)

Time

International negotiations

National imple-

mentation

Local implementat

ion

National pre-

parations

Scale

Local

National

International Basin

MAIN GOALS 1

• Preparation of a “Handbook on PP methodologies“ for river basin management planning

• Provide insight into social learning in a multi-phase multi-level context

MAIN GOALS 2

• Increase our understanding of the role of information and information tools

• Compare and assess national PP experiences and their background

• Involvement of national and subnational governments and major stakeholder groups

Workpackage StructureFramework of Analysis

Participation as a social learning process

Role of information and ICT

tools

National approaches

& background

s Inte

grat

ion

Case Studies and Experiments

Co-ordination Handbook & Dissemination

WP 1Objectives WP1 – Framing

• To spell out our approach to PP and explore the main issues.

• To develop a glossary in the filed of PP, social learning and RBMP for use within the project

• To consult the public and stakeholders on our approach and our plans for research

• To validate and further improve our plans for research

WP 2Objectives WP2 - Participation as social

learning

• To conceptualise river basin management as sets of social processes at different levels, characterised by different forms of interest representation, conflictivity and institutionalisation

• To specify the concept “social learning” for RBMP and make it measurable

• To identify critical issues for participation as a means to promote social learning

• To identify possible ways to handle these issues

WP 3Objectives WP3 - The role of ICT tools

• To provide a methodology to analyse the use of ICT tools and to assess their real impact on PP improvement

WP 4Objectives WP4 - National approaches

and backgrounds

• To provide an overview of PP practices (aim, process, methods) in the different countries and, where possible, their effects

• To explore the influence of institutional, legal, cultural, geographical/physical factors

• To evaluate (national) learned lessons and develop practical criteria for evaluating participatory RBMP

WP 5Objectives WP5 - Case studies and

experiments

• To gain first hand experience with PP in river basin management so as to examine how social processes and information tools and models are applied and used in practice at the river basin level

• To study the issues identified in WP2-4 and test the ideas developed on effective PP so as to identify approaches that work and those that do not, highlighting those which can be put forward as ‘good European practices’

WP 6Objectives WP6 – Integration

• To integrate the results of WP1-WP5 and summarise state of the art on integrated RBMP. This will serve as a basis for the production of the handbook in WP7.

WP 7Objectives WP7 - Handbook and dissemination

• To promote effective dissemination of the (preliminary) results of the project

• To produce a Handbook on PP methodologies to support the implementation of the PP provisions of the WFD at the EU, national and subnational level and promote social learning in RBMP

• To develop an interactive communication and information platform on the internet and make the handbook a living document embedded into a community of practitioners.

Organizations involved1. USF: University of Osnabrück, Institute for Environmental

Systems Research, co-ordinator (with Aberdeen University as sub-contractors)

2. RBA: RBA Centre, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

3. Ecologic, Germany4. KULRD: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centre for

Organisational and Personnel Psychology (COPP), Belgium5. RWS-RIZA, Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water

Management, The Netherlands6. ENPC, LATTS-ENPC, France7. Cemagref, France8. Delft Hydraulics: WL|Delft Hydraulics, The Netherlands9. Colenco: Colenco Power Engineering Ltd, Switzerland10. ICIS/ UM, University of Maastricht, The Netherlands11. UAH: University of Alcala de Henares, Environmental

Economics Group, Department of Economic Analysis, Spain12. Uniud: University of Udine, Italy13. BUTE: Budapest University of Technology and Economics,

Hungary14. WRc, United Kingdom (with Middlesex University, FHRC, as

sub-contractors)15. UAB: Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain