RISK-BASE - Towards Risk-based Management of European River Basins - Key-findings & Recommendations

As the pressures from both anthropogenic and natural causes on environmental systems increase, it is no longer effective or efficient to deal with one issue at a time, since solving a singular problem often causes damaging impacts on other environmental compartments or in other places. We must consider the consequences of our actions on all parts of the environment in an integrated way and configure these actions to cope with an uncertain future. These challenges demand a different approach in order to achieve actual improvement of the ecological quality of our river basins, and thus sustain the goods and services they provide for the wellbeing of society (figure 1). Risk-based management is this new approach. It involves the integrated application of three key-principles: be well informed, manage adaptively and take a participatory approach.