Dragan Zeljko, International Sava River Basin Commission Venice, 16-17 December 2021 Overall responsibility for the views and opinions expressed in the slides is taken by the authors

1. Dragan Zeljko
Secretary
International Sava River Basin Commission
MAB-IHP Regional Symposium
Managing Water Resources in Biosphere Reserves in South East Europe and the Mediterranean
16-17 December 2021

2. Sava River Basin
Area: 97 700 km2 (2nd Danube
sub-basin; share: 12%)
River length: 945 km (594 km of
which is the waterway)
Discharge (mouth)  1700 m3/s (1st
Danube tributary; contr. 25%)
Countries: Slovenia, Croatia, B&H,
Serbia and Montenegro
Population: approx. 8.5 million

3. Sava River Basin
 From Julian Alps across
Plains and Dinarides
 One of the „crown jewels” of
nature
 9 national parks
 3 parks of nature
 7 Ramsar sites
 Outstanding biological and
diversity
 Central Posavina region
– nature and culture
 "Live with water, not against
 Traditional architecture
 Traditional grazing & fishing

4. Framework Agreement on the Sava River Basin (FASRB, 2004)
 Key objective: Transboundary cooperation for sustainable
development of the region
 Parties: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia
Protocols to the FASRB
 Navigation Regime (2004)
• institutional arrangements (navigation rules, technical rules for vessels, marking
 Flood Protection (2015)
• regulates the issues of sustainable flood protection in the Sava River Basin with
hazard, to reduce flood risk and to reduce or mitigate detrimental consequences
 Prevention of Water Pollution caused by Navigation (2017)
• prescribes measures to effectively prevent, control and reduce pollution from
necessary measures for adequate pollution response, monitoring of water
 Sediment Management (2017)
• regulates procedures of cooperation related to sustainable sediment
the water and sediment regime in the Sava River Basin, comprising quality and

5. Sava Commission
 A platform for transboundary basin -
 One member and one deputy member
 Seat Agreement with the Government of
 Financing: Annual contributions of the
 Secretariat as an administrative and
 Permanent and Ad hoc expert groups
 The broadest scope of work among
commissions
 Water management
 Navigation

6. Selected achievements
 1st Sava River Basin Management
 Sava GIS/HIS (2016)
 Sava Flood Forecasting System (2018)
 Sava Flood Risk Management Plan (2019)

7. 2nd Sava RBMP in development
Significant water management issues
 Organic pollution
 Nutrient pollution
 Hazardous substances pollution
 Hydromorphological alteration
 Groundwater quality
 Sediment issues
 Invasive alien species
Sava Stakeholder forum, 17 December

8. 2nd Sava RBM Plan - Protected areas
The inventory of the protected areas (EU and national legislation)
- 301 WFD Art.7
- 145 sites Habitats Directive
- 14 sites Birds Directive
- 59 sites National biodiversity and Nature protection legislation
Main pressures on surface water bodies in the protected area

9.  Observers to the Sava Commission
 Sava Water Council
 Sava Youth Parliament
 Special example and world unique basin wide
transboundary youth organisatoin
 Established in 2012
 Ensure sustainability-Future oriented
 Voice of youth
 Yearly meetings-specific topics
Stakeholder involvement

10. Sustainable sediment management (SSM)
 Towards Practical guidance for SSM
 Practical course on SSM (2012)
 Estimation of sediment balance for the Sava River
(2013)
 Proposal of the Establishment of Sediment monitoring
System (2014)
 Establishment of pilot hydrological stations for
sediment monitoring (2016)
 Development of the Outline for the Sediment
management plan (2021)
Cooperation with UNESCO

11. Flood Risk Management
 Workshop on Flood Risk Management Measures &
Links to EU WFD (Zagreb, November 2015)
 Transboundary training Workshop on Governance and
Technology for Flood risk reduction: Linking early
warning to emergency management in the Sava River
Basin (Zagreb, December 2017)
 SHELTER project
- Sustainable Historic Environments hoListic
reconstruction through Technological Enhancement
and community-based Resilience
Cooperation with UNESCO

12. SHELTER project-Sava Open Lab
 Main objective
 To establish data driven and community-based knowledge and
operational framework for resilience enhancement and sustainable
reconstruction of historic environments to cope with climate
change and natural hazards
 Partners
 23 Project Partners from 14 countries, 5 case studies (Open Labs)
 Technalia, UNESCO Venice, IHE Delft, ISRBC and SMEs, European
Economic Interest Groupings), Research Organisations, Public
Bodies and Policy Maker
 Scope
 SAVA OPEN LAB - Cultural Heritage in prevention, preparedness,
protection, response and recovery phases of flood risk
management
 Timeframe
 June 2019 – May 2023
Cooperation with UNESCO

13. SHELTER project-Sava Open Lab
This project has received funding from the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 821282
 Sava GIS improved and data on CH assets integrated
 Flood risk assessment on CH to be performed
Cooperation with UNESCO

14. Sava Youth Parliament
Cooperation with UNESCO
 3rd meeting – Ljubljana (2014)
 „Water in the Sava River Basin- development and protection”
 Cartoon scenarios within the „H2Ooooh“ project
 9th meeting – Banjaluka (2021)
 „Let’s protect our heritage“
 UNESCO Venice office and SHELTER project support

15. Thank You for Your attention!