Initial Situation • Project area • Objectives • Measures • Results • INTERREG

Initial Situation

The cross-border INTERREG III A project Thaya/Dyje is conducted in cooperation of Czech and Austrian project partners. On the Austrian side the Umweltbundesamt (Austrian Environment Agency) and the national park Thayatal and on the Czech side the Water research institute - Branch Brno are in charge of the performance of the transborder project. The main objectives of the project consist in the adoption of a management plan and Programme of Measures and in the establishment and improvement of cross-border coordination structures for the implementation.

In December 2000 the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union enact the EC- Water Framework Directive. In Austria it was adopted in 2003 by legal transposition into national legislation. The Directive defines the environmental aims for surface and groundwater bodies. This includes a holistic view on the river and its environment and regards aspects of nature conservation and land use.

The evaluation of the ecological and chemical condition of the waterbodies and a consecutively elaborated Programme of Measures should ensure the achievement of the overall objective of the EC- Water Framework Directive of a good status of all waterbodies and each river basin district until 2015.

After conducting numerous water-engineering and ecological studies and planning separate, the Czech and Austrian project partners decided to transcend the national boundaries. The synthesis and exchange of existing information, the bilateral formulation of project objectives and the current information and consultation of the public are of essential significance in the cross-border project Thaya/Dyje.