The Danube A River Basin In Transition

International river basins first captured my interest while I worked on water resource issues in the US Department of the Interior during the 1970s and '80s. I was especially intrigued with the way the US resolved long and recurring disputes with Mexico over the shared use of the Colorado River. The elements of decision making common to basins throughout the world were present in these transboundary conflicts and their resolution. In 1985 I began collaborating with Dr. Eleonora Sabadell, who was then a specialist in water resources at George Washington University and who is now with the US National Science Foundation, on analyses of several international river basin agreements. The work combined her expertise as a civil engineer and mine as a political scientist and practicing policy analyst. We wrote articles, participated in panel sessions, and in 1986 directed an international workshop at IIASA in Laxenburg, Austria. By no means ready to retire in 1989 I nevertheless began to think of leaving Interior to spend full time exploring the challenge, and intrinsic value, of transboundary river basin agreements. I applied for a Fulbright research grant to develop for the Danube River Basin one of the most needed tools for successful management of an international river, a basin-wide information system. My proposal, for nine-months' study at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, was filed with the Fulbright Program on September 1, 1989.

International river basins first captured my interest while I worked on water resource issues in the US Department of the Interior during the 1970s and '80s. I was especially intrigued with the way the US resolved long and recurring disputes with Mexico over the shared use of the Colorado River. The elements of decision making common to basins throughout the world were present in these transboundary conflicts and their resolution. In 1985 I began collaborating with Dr. Eleonora Sabadell, who was then a specialist in water resources at George Washington University and who is now with the US National Science Foundation, on analyses of several international river basin agreements. The work combined her expertise as a civil engineer and mine as a political scientist and practicing policy analyst. We wrote articles, participated in panel sessions, and in 1986 directed an international workshop at IIASA in Laxenburg, Austria. By no means ready to retire in 1989 I nevertheless began to think of leaving Interior to spend full time exploring the challenge, and intrinsic value, of transboundary river basin agreements. I applied for a Fulbright research grant to develop for the Danube River Basin one of the most needed tools for successful management of an international river, a basin-wide information system. My proposal, for nine-months' study at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, was filed with the Fulbright Program on September 1, 1989.

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.

International river basins first captured my interest while I worked on water resource issues in the US Department of the Interior during the 1970s and '80s. I was especially intrigued with the way the US resolved long and recurring disputes with Mexico over the shared use of the Colorado River. The elements of decision making common to basins throughout the world were present in these transboundary conflicts and their resolution. In 1985 I began collaborating with Dr. Eleonora Sabadell, who was then a specialist in water resources at George Washington University and who is now with the US National Science Foundation, on analyses of several international river basin agreements. The work combined her expertise as a civil engineer and mine as a political scientist and practicing policy analyst. We wrote articles, participated in panel sessions, and in 1986 directed an international workshop at IIASA in Laxenburg, Austria. By no means ready to retire in 1989 I nevertheless began to think of leaving Interior to spend full time exploring the challenge, and intrinsic value, of transboundary river basin agreements. I applied for a Fulbright research grant to develop for the Danube River Basin one of the most needed tools for successful management of an international river, a basin-wide information system. My proposal, for nine-months' study at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, was filed with the Fulbright Program on September 1, 1989.

The Danube River Basin is shared by 19 countries and there is no river basin in the world shared by so many nations. Europe’s second largest river basin with a total 2 area of about 800,000 km is also home to 83 million people of different cultures, languages and historical backgrounds. Management of common water sources and overcoming dif?culties caused by droughts and ?oods requires co-operation between the countries. In 1971 these c- mon interests stimulated the hydrologists of – at that time – eight Danube countries to begin regional co- operation in the framework of the International Hydrological Decade of UNESCO. The result of this research was The Hydrological Monograph of the Danube and its Catchment, which was published in 1986. Since 1975 this co-operation has continued under the umbrella of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) of UNESCO. In the past 20 years political turbulence has caused an increase in the number of countries, making the co-operation dif?cult at times.

This book was written with the aim of showing that even in the era of globalization developments appearing in cities are not subject to almost unconditional global forces. Rather, universal forces are decisive eventualities in the process of urban restructuring, often influencing its course and speed, yet developments and particularities within a city strongly influence the course of events and the extent to which negative characteristics of globalization might occur. Berlin, Brussels, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sarajevo and Vienna: Using these important cities the special relationship between global and local/regional forces is analyzed. The case studies were selected based on their political and cultural context and the fact that their social and political fabric was subject to major changes in the recent past. How global processes manifest themselves locally depends to a great extent on how development processes and endogenic potentials are initiated locally in order to cope with the new global economic and societal conditions.

here ofexchange, and borrowing in debates between these disciplines, all the more so, as we shall see a little further on, as the analysis of the Central and East European transformations has also contributed to introduce into political science and sociology theoretical systematizations first formulated in economics. In addition to this opening up to the objects and theories of economics, the pseudo-"dilemma" ofsimultaneity produced, by a kind of feedback, another series of effects on transitology and the related research domains. Contrary to most expectations and predictions in the wake ofthe 1989 upheavals - affirmations that the "dilemmas", "problems" or "challenges" of the transitions in Central and Eastern Europe ought to have been dealt with and resolved one after the other in sequence, in the manner of the more or less idealized trajectories of Great Britain or Spain (trajectories significantly enough promoted, far beyond the circles of scholars, as a "model" of transition), and above all, contrary to the assumption that superposing a radical economic transformation upon a transition to democracy would make the whole edifice thoroughly unworkable, unstable or dangerous - it must be stated clearly out that the two processes, in their "simultaneity", are not necessarily incompatible. This is one of the main findings stressed upon in several chapters of this book.

Water Related Education, Training and Technology Transfer is a component of Encyclopedia of Water Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Learning processes offer knowledge, skills, and competencies to the individual through different methods of education and training. The learning society and the concept of lifelong learning form the basis for the so-called “knowledge-based” economy. Since water resources development and management are an essential part of this economy, education, training, and transfer of technology for water resources should be seen as important aspects of societal policies for a sustainable future. This book starts with a little history, and introduces several issues related to water resources in the learning environment. What does the water profession expect from education? We must consider the methods and tools used the need to match demand and supply, and quality assessment of education and training. Transfer of technology to close the technology gap between countries can only be effective if an enabling learning environment exists. Capacity building must ensure that this environment is sustainable. This volume is aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.