Water areas management Plan for 2016 to 2021.

This Plan, divided into five main sections (A, B, C, D and E) sets the general Croatian national policy for the management of water areas present on the national territory. Main objectives are to achieve all targeted water protection goals, through the implementation of integrated management approach, monitoring and evaluation tasks, all in relation to the protection of the environment and health in general. In full accordance with all fundamental commitments of the water management, the development of this Water areas management Plan which implies: coverage of all categories of water in the water area: land surface waters (rivers, lakes), transitional waters and coastal waters, and groundwater, as well as water protected areas and other special areas; overall determination of the environmental objectives of water protection as a combination of water ecological and chemical status; harmonization of environmental objectives with the aim of sustainable development; consideration of a wide range of measures such as regulatory, administrative, spatial, planning, economical, technical and other, including the definition of the programme of measures to achieve the environmental objectives at the most cost-effective level; flood risk management planning, defining goals of flood risk management and consideration of a wide range of measures such as regulatory, administrative, spatial planning, economic, technical and other; involvement of the public and especially interested stakeholders in the planning process; cooperation/harmonization in water management at international level water areas.
The main goal of water protection measures and techniques is to protect the general water resources from different pollution sources, in order to protect the life and health, protect the environment and enabling the safe and sustainable use of water for various purposes. The starting point for making county plans for protection of water was the report on the state of water areas, state of affairs, based on which certain optimum drainage methods were determined, wastewater issues also by taking into account all available urban planning and development plans and effects which they achieve, according to the priorities that follow from the conditions in space and the environment. This text includes the provisions on integrated water protection approach, irrigation, industrial water use, all in line with several sectoral documents, including the Environmental Protection Plan of the Republic of Croatia from 2016 to 2023.
This Plan consists of two water management components: Water status management, in compliance with the provisions of the Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 on the establishment of a framework for action Communities in the field of water policy; and Flood risk management, content-compliant with the provisions of the Directive 2007/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on the assessment and management of floods.
Section A, title: Water management framework (containing sub headlines and covering topics such as: territorial framework; legal and administrative organization and institutional structure; planned framework; description of water areas; natural features of water areas; socio-economic features; natural characteristics of water; surface waters; hydrographic and hydrological characteristics of water areas; ecological framework; groundwater; underground waters of the river Danube river basin; underwater waters of the Adriatic watershed, and saltwater intrusion provisions; protected areas, areas of special water protection; summary of registered protected areas; list of relevant competent institutions);
Section B, title: Executive summary (containing sub headlines and covering topics such as: water management; water status; safety measure programme; flood risk management; risk assessment and flood risk assessment);
Section C, title: Water control (containing sub headlines and covering topics such as: water use due to human activities; concentrated sources of pollution; scattered water pollution sources; catching and redirecting of water; hydromorphological aspects; estimation difficulties caused by climate change; surface water status, rivers, lakes and coastal waters; groundwater status; groundwater bodies; groundwater body status; development evaluation and risk assessment; analysis of the Croatian Water Framework Management Plan (2013-2015); progress in achieving water protection goals; economic analysis; access and cost recovery; environmental cost and resource cost estimate; basic measures to recover water service costs and to encourage efficient water use; water protection measures intended for human consumption; prohibitory measures for the prevention of direct water pollution; several types of measures aimed to eliminate and reduce the water priority pollutant contamination; accidental pollution prevention measures; waters suitable for the life of freshwater fish and water suitable for shellfish; bathing and recreation water areas; sensitive areas, and areas subject to contamination of nitrate of agricultural origin, or potentially vulnerable water areas; areas intended to protect the habitat or species where maintenance or improvement of waters states an essential element of their protection; proposed update of register of protected areas; monitoring and supplementary monitoring measures; additional measures of control of detected and dispersed pollution sources; cartographic surveys of water bodies subject to these measures);
Section D, title: Risk management (containing sub headlines and covering topics such as: previous flood risk assessment; significantly recorded floods; preliminary flood risk assessment; previous assessment of areas with significant flood risk; hazard maps and flood risk maps; assessment of potential flood damage; principal aims of the flood risk management; influence of climate change; financing of water protection needs and of related necessary actions); Section E, title: Register of documentation (containing sub headlines and covering topics such as: related legislation; summary of the registry of more detailed plans and programmes relating to certain sub sections of this text).
In the Annex of this publication, the water area maps and related schemes are also included.