I.L. Murphy - Böcker

In this work Eastern and Western, NATO partner and member country specialists discuss recent accomplishments in the sharing of timely, accurate data and information to protect the water resources of the Danube Basin, a strategic region shared by two Western and 11 former Communist countries. An international commission, continuing the work of an ad hoc environmental management programme, is expected to take over in 1997 and may well adopt the recommendations of this workshop. These recommendations include the establishment of a central source of water quality data and information on levels of pollution, government standards and their enforcement, NGO environmental groups, and other programmes and policies. Users, investors in new and/or joint business ventures, national and international governments, research scientists, the media, NGOs and the general public will be served on the Internet and through the distribution of CD-ROM and diskettes.

Tensions in parts of the Danube River Basin, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and elsewhere demonstrate the need for international agreements which should help stabilize and improve economies, governments, and environmental management within the countries in transition and across national borders. An instrument of peace, a convention which establishes a commission to oversee natural resource protection among all basin countries, is about to be adopted and implemented. This book covers in detail the readiness of the countries to participate and the programmes funded by international agencies, and suggests ways to stimulate the slow and uneven government and investor response to conflicts. It reviews the approach and successes and failures of current programmes funded by the European Commission, the Global Environment Facility, and US AID, and suggests ways to improve such assistance for maximum effect within the countries themselves.The book has equal value to two sets of audiences: specialists in many disciplines, scientists and technicians, and their colleagues in public and private sector policy-making who deal full-time with transboundary natural resource problems at a practical level in the Danube region or in regions elsewhere; and those concerned about the future economic and political stability of the east European and CIS countries and their ability to meet EU environmental and other criteria, including investors in public and private projects.

A source of information on current water resources, their quality and quantity, in every country in the Balkans in 2000. Institutional structures, water management issues and water monitoring problems are analyzed, with special reference to international waters, using characteristic case studies, including the Sava River, Lake Ohrid, The Nestos/Mesta River, the Neretva River estuary, and coastal waters in Turkey. Contributions written by experts from France, the UK and the USA demonstrate state-of-the-art electronic networking and the management of distributed water databases. The protection of water resources in the Balkans has become a high profile issue since the collapse of communism in the area, the break up of former Yugoslavia, and ethnic tensions in Kosovo. Transboundary river pollution and the development of international water basins demand urgent regional co-operation, which will be facilitated by the International Network of Water-Environment Centres for the Balkans, the initiation of which is described in the final conclusions of the book.

A source of information on current water resources, their quality and quantity, in every country in the Balkans in 2000. Institutional structures, water management issues and water monitoring problems are analyzed, with special reference to international waters, using characteristic case studies, including the Sava River, Lake Ohrid, The Nestos/Mesta River, the Neretva River estuary, and coastal waters in Turkey. Contributions written by experts from France, the UK and the USA demonstrate state-of-the-art electronic networking and the management of distributed water databases. The protection of water resources in the Balkans has become a high profile issue since the collapse of communism in the area, the break up of former Yugoslavia, and ethnic tensions in Kosovo. Transboundary river pollution and the development of international water basins demand urgent regional co-operation, which will be facilitated by the International Network of Water-Environment Centres for the Balkans, the initiation of which is described in the final conclusions of the book.

Eastern and Western, NATO partner and member country specialists discuss recent accomplishments in the sharing of timely, accurate data and information to protect the water resources of the Danube Basin, a strategic region shared by two Western and 11 former Communist countries. An International Commission, continuing the work of an ad hoc environmental management programme, is expected to take over in 1997 and may well adopt the recommendations of this timely workshop. These recommendations include the establishment of a central source of water quality data and information on levels of pollution, government standards and their enforcement, NGO environmental groups, and other programmes and policies. The editor, Dr. Irene Lyons Murphy, received support from the United States Institute of Peace during 1995- a study of the cooperative management of Danube River resources which began with the end of the Cold War. It analyzes the development and ratification of the Danube River Protection Convention and other aspects of joint pro-environment activities from 1991 to 1996. Its title The Danube: A River Basin in Transition is to be published in early 1997.Users, investors in new and/or joint business ventures, national and international governments, research scientists, the media, NGOs and the general public will be served on the Internet and through the distribution of CD-ROM and diskettes.