**1. Introduction**

22 Current Issues of Water Management

Wurbs, R.A., and Hoffpauir, R.J. (2011). Water Rights Analysis Package (WRAP) Daily

Zagona, E.A. Fulp, T.J., Shane, R., Magee, T. & Goranflo, H. M. (2001). Riverware: A

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402, Texas Water Resources Institute, College Station, TX, USA.

*Water Resources Association*. 37(4), 913-929, ISSN 1752-1688.

Francis, London, 527-548, ISBN 0-8493-3609-0.

Simulation, Flood Control, and Short-Term Reliability Modeling. Technical Report

Generalized Tool for Complex Reservoir System Modeling. *Journal of the American* 

21 RiverWare in: V.P. Singh & D.K. Frevert (Eds.), *Watershed Models*. CRC Taylor &

According to a widely used definition, the integrated water resources management (IWRM) "is a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximise the resultant economic and social welfare, paving the way towards sustainable development, in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems" (Global Water Partnership, 2000). The IWRM approach helps to manage and develop water resources in a sustainable and balanced way, taking account of social, economic and environmental interests. Although the IWRM concept has been formulated as early as in mid twentieth century (Biswas, 2004), the approach has been granted a due attention in early 1990-ies (*The Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development*, 1992; UNECE, 1992) and, since then, a remarkable work has been done to examine different concepts of IWRM (for review, see Global Water Partnership & International Network of Basin Organizations, 2009).

Particular challenges of IWRM are associated with transboundary basins, especially due to decreasing resources and growing demands. A great number of international basin organizations have been established to manage water resources in transboudary basins. A general distinction can be made between implementation-oriented basin organizations, responsible for development, implementation and maintenance of joint projects, often having a development focus and going beyond pure water resources management, and coordination-oriented basin organizations, in charge of coordinating water resources management tasks that are developed and implemented on national level, but coordinated and harmonized on transboundary level (Schmeier, 2010).

Given the nature of the conventions dealing with transboundary basins in Europe, such as the Danube, Rhine or Elbe basins, the respective basin organizations are obviously focused, either on sustainability issues (i.e. protection of the rivers), or on development activities (i.e. development of navigation, or tourism). However, recent processes, led by European Union, namely the *EU 2020 Strategy* (EC, 2010a) and the *EU Strategy for the Danube Region* (EC, 2010b) yielded new frameworks tending to integrate sustainability and development.

In comparison with other European river basins, however, the situation in the Sava river basin was rather peculiar. The political changes in the region of the former Yugoslavia in

Integrated Water Resources Management as a

Fig. 1. Location of the Sava river basin (ISRBC, 2009e)

unit-area-runoff for the whole basin of about 18 l/s/km2.

Share of national territory

Area of the country

AL – Albania.

almost 20°C.

Basis for Sustainable Development – The Case of the Sava River Basin 25

**SI HR BA RS ME AL** 

Total country area [km2] 20,273 56,542 51,129 88,361 13,812 27,398

in the basin [%] 52.8 45.2 75.8 17.4 49.6 0.6

in the basin [km2] 11,734.8 25,373.5 38,349.1 15,147.0 6,929.8 179.0 Share of the basin [%] 12.0 26.0 39.2 15.5 7.1 0.2 Notation: SI – Slovenia; HR – Croatia; BA – Bosnia and Herzegovina; RS – Serbia; ME – Montenegro;

The Sava river basin is situated within a wide region where the moderate **climate** of the northern hemisphere prevails. The average annual **air temperature** for the whole basin is 9.5°C. Mean monthly temperature in January falls to about -1.5°C, while in July it can reach

**Precipitation** amount and its annual distribution are very variable within the basin (Fig. 2), while the basin average is about 1,100 mm/year. Spatial distribution of **unit-area-runoff** largely follows the pattern of precipitation spatial distribution. It varies from 150 mm/year (below 5 l/s/km2) up to 1,200 mm/year (almost 40 l/s/km2), as shown in Fig. 3. Spatial distribution of **evapotranspiration** is heterogeneous, too (Fig. 4), with the basin average of about 530 mm/year. The long-term average discharge of the Sava river at the mouth is about 1,700 m3/s, which is equivalent to effective rainfall of about 570 mm/year, and to the

Table 1. Share of the Sava countries belonging to the Sava river basin (ISRBC, 2009d)

the 1990-ies, which turned the Sava river from the largest national river into an international river, challenged the water management in the Sava river basin substantially, by seriously affecting its basic elements (hydro-meteorological data exchange system, monitoring and early warning systems, etc.) and confining it to a national level, unlike the integrated approach, emerging in Europe at the same time. The changes have also caused a sharp decrease of economic activities in the region, such as navigation, unlike the other parts of Europe, where the inland waterway transport has proven to be a competitive transport mode, being environmentally friendly and capable of reducing congestion on densely used roads (EC, 2006). Since then, the Sava river has been hardly used for transport, for a number of reasons, including a lack of maintenance and investments, resulting in a poor quality of infrastructure, poor intermodal road and railway connections, as well as damaged ports and river infrastructure and presence of unexploded ordnances, endangering safe navigation.

For these reasons, a new international framework became necessary in order to ensure a sustainable use, protection and management of water resources in the Sava river basin, and thus enable better life conditions and raising the standard of population in the region. After a process of negotiations, the new framework has finally been provided by the development of the *Framework Agreement on the Sava River Basin* (*FASRB*, 2002), and subsequent establishment of the International Sava River Basin Commission (ISRBC), as an international organization with responsibility to coordinate the implementation of the *FASRB*.

The overall objective of the *FASRB* is to establish and maintain the transboundary cooperation in the water sector, in order to provide conditions for sustainable development of the region within the Sava river basin. The main purpose of this Chapter is to present the approach to water resources management, based on the *FASRB*, which appears to be a good basis for a progress toward sustainable development of the region within the basin.
