ⒸAdobeStock_THANANIT
21 - 25 August 2023

STARS4Water: Stakeholder driven unlocking of data for river basin management

Convenors: Deltares, BOKU, Rijkswaterstaat, Planet, INBO

According to IPCC, worldwide freshwater resources are under increasing pressures of rapidly intensifying climate change effects putting the availability and quality of water resources and socio-economic developments at risk. To face this, better quantitative assessments and projections of the impacts of climate change on the water resources availability and water-related risks for society, ecology and economic sectors are needed and the activities of the STARS4Water project have the ambition to provide this. (EU Grant Agreement 101059372). To this end, STARS4Water develops, delivers and demonstrates new data services and data-driven models for better supporting the decision making on planning on actions for adaptive, resilient and sustainable management of freshwater resources.

 

Interactive dialogue during the special session

During this special session we will have an interactive dialogue between the audience and members of a panel (representing the scientific and river basin organisations community) to discuss the (hampering) uptake of available global data sources (inc. remote sensing) into current river basin planning and climate adaptation studies on the river basin scale.

Based on several questions and propositions, we will discuss the needs of stakeholders in river basins and what knowledge and innovative developments are needed to unlock the full potential of new and under-used datasets that support their work and decision making. Four panellists are invited to provide their experience and knowledge on this topic. Audience members are invited to comment and formulate questions based on their own experiences.

The session starts with a short introduction of the ambition of the STARS4Water project and a sneak preview of the new metadataportal supporting river basin management that is under development in the project.

 

STARS4Water

STARS4Water will develop and deliver the next generation river basin tools and data services that support decision making on planning on actions for adaptative, resilient and sustainable management of freshwater resources. The project team will work with stakeholder communities in seven river basin hubs in Europe that represent a regionally diverse portfolio of climate vulnerabilities and adaptation needs across sectors. The new services and models will be co-designed with stakeholders to meet their needs on data and information and to promote uptake for use beyond the lifetime of the project.

Data play an important role in the project. In addition to generating new datasets, STARS4Water will unlock existing data sets and data services from earth observations initiatives, JRC activities and earlier EU research projects that are currently underexploited by public and private stakeholders in water resources planning. The STARS4Water project is aimed at stimulating the uptake of such datasets, by demonstrating their use in pilots, by developing derived data that is better suited to user needs and by developing a metadata portal to facilitate data access.