Integrated water management and the European project NOVIWAM
The objective of the European research project NOVIWAM (2010-2013),involving four types of partners (research institutes, businessentities, water managers, and other stakeholders) for five regions orcountries (Cyprus, Albania, Poitou Charentes Region, NorthernHydrological Region in Portugal, Andalusia), was to harmonize researchplanning, and to make consistent and complementary the approaches usedto solve the problems related to the water resource management, fromthe quantitative and the qualitative points of view. We indicate herethe approach we followed, and we give some indications about theresearch priorities. We also succinctly describe an example of afeasibility study undertaken in order to illustrate these issues,aiming at lowering the water consumption (a decrease of 25%) forirrigation, while maintaining the farmers’ income and the volumesof agricultural goods produced; and also while ensuring the stabilityof the water management company’s budget.