Leading transport and environment policy makers agree that new infrastructure has to balance ecology and waterway needs. This began with the Joint Statement on Navigation and Environmental Protection (2007) and has developed further in the EU PLATINA Project as an interdisciplinary dialogue organised by the ICPDR. The most important output of this is the new ‘Manual on Good Practices in Sustainable Waterway Planning’, which will be published in May this year.

Preparatory work on the Manual included two training workshops hosted in Zagreb, Croatia, and Ruse, Bulgaria. More than 40 transport, environment policy and waterway managers met to discuss the content of the Manual and learn about examples of good practice from Germany on the Rhine and Main rivers, Austria on the Danube and England on the Thames. Success in these examples was a result of the combination of ecology with navigation interests, early and sustained stakeholder involvement as well as comprehensive monitoring.

The new Manual recommends five separate planning stages. The planning work should involve a Project Steering Committee, a Technical and Ecological Planning Team, an Interdisciplinary Advisory Board and an Integrated Monitoring Team. The Manual emphasises that effective involvement and cooperation of diverse stakeholders is the key to planning success. The Manual will be available from the ICPDR website soon and was developed by the ICPDR with support from via donau, Inland Navigation Europe and the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna.

Alexander Zinke is the ICPDR project manager for navigation.