ICM [NZ] and IRBM [EU]

In a rare example of synchronicity, from 26 to 28 April 2010 there will be both a workshop on Integrated Catchment Management [ICM] taking place in Nelson, NZ, and an international conference on Integrated River Basin Management [IRBM] taking place simultaneously in Lille, France.  It is a reasonable guess that the Nelson workshop will include extending lessons relevant to New Zealand catchments from the Landcare Research-led studies which have taken place on the Motueka catchment over about the last 9 years.  The Motueka River catchment covers about 2060 km².  In contrast, and probably in a world first, a river basin management plan for the whole of the European Union has been launched to cover the period 2009-2015.  Covering about 4.3 million km², this plan is said to implement integrated water resources management “at the scale of a continent on the basis of a common legal framework.”  That framework is the EU Water Framework Directive, which became law in December 2000. It required a draft RBMP by 2008 and a finalised plan by 2009.  The Motueka catchment is part of the UNESCO HELP international network. It might be an interesting scaling exercise [area ratio 2000:1] to see in what ways ICM in NZ can learn from IRBM in the EU, and vice versa.
Sources: http://www.waterlink-international.com/news/id1044-Integrated_River_Basin_Management.html?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20100324+WL;
 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-framework/index_en.html; http://icm.landcareresearch.co.nz/