Main Scientific-technical activities Other FNCA activities

The FNCA research team has carried out a wide number of national and international research projects around all issues dealing with water management and water governance and with a focus on an interdisciplinary, participatory and problem-solving approach. More details on these topics can be found in the description of the research lines of the FNCA. The main findings have been widely disseminated in publications and other communications tools.

Since 1998 the FNCA organizes the bi-annual Iberian Congress on Water Planing and Management, with the collaboration of more than fifty universities and research institutions from Spain and Portugal. It also co-organized the I Latin-American Meeting for a New Water Culture (Fortaleza, Brazil, 2005), with more than 500 participants.

The FNCA led a wide collaborative process with European water experts which ended up with the European Declaration for a New Water Culture. The Declaration was signed in 2005 in Madrid by 100 water experts from 20 European countries under the support of the Spanish Ministry of Environment and with the attendance of 400 experts. The process included the participation as observers of more than 25 European NGOs.

The FNCA also organizes a high number of workshops, seminars and meetings around cutting-edge issues, emergent debates and water conflicts in order to promote the synergies among the best available knowledge and the needs of citizens, water managers and stakeholders.

Since 2006 it carries out an ongoing assessment of the Spanish water policy at the national and river-basin scales, with a special emphasis on the WFD implementation process in Spain. It also carries out an assessment of key developments of the European policies, legislative activities and guidelines related to water. In this area, the FNCA leaded the organization of the AQUANET’s International Workshop “Taking the soft approach to hard decisions. European approaches to participation in River Basin Management” held in Faro (Portugal) on 4 December 2006, in which more than 45 experts from all over Europe shared experiences and visions on the implementation of public participation in water management.

The Water Policies Observatory (OPPA) of FNCA carries out a permanent follow-up of the water planning and management at the European, national and basin scales. A particular attention is devoted to the monitoring and assessment of the Water Framework Directive implementation process and the ellaboration and application of water management plans in each river basin.