Results

Establishment of new scientific relationships within northern and southern countries and close relationship with water managers, end-users and other stakeholders.

The international cooperation NORTH-SOUTH was one of the more important aspects of the project. To this end many meetings and symposiums have been organised by the partners of three European countries of the project (Spain, France and Denmark) and the partners of the two non-Europeans countries (Morocco and Egypt). Among these it is necessary to highlight the first International Symposium on Recent Advances in Quantitative Remote Sensing (RAQRS), which was organised by the WATERMED coordinator and welcome the participation of more than 50 international organisations and 200 researchers. Besides, each partner devoted a significant part of their budget to the training of young scientists.

Other of the major outcomes of the project is bridging the gap first between the different managers concerned with water management and second between university scientists and the managers. This project allowed for establishment of trusted relationship between the science and the management communities. Water managers are now testing a new management strategy where water allocation is decided based on the demand rather than the availability. This allowed for setting priorities for water allocation in case of water shortages or crises which is rather the actual situation.   

Future action should be directed toward the use of the actual project output to build a decision support system for integrated management of water resources. This will allow for incorporating up to data and technology for day to day water management issues and then to establish a sound scenario for the consequences of political actions on the sustainability of water resources.