Eastern and Western, NATO partner and member country specialists discuss recent accomplishments in the sharing of timely, accurate data and information to protect the water resources of the Danube Basin, a strategic region shared by two Western and 11 former Communist countries. An International Commission, continuing the work of an ad hoc environmental management programme, is expected to take over in 1997 and may well adopt the recommendations of this timely workshop. These recommendations include the establishment of a central source of water quality data and information on levels of pollution, government standards and their enforcement, NGO environmental groups, and other programmes and policies.
The editor, Dr. Irene Lyons Murphy, received support from the United States Institute of Peace during 1995- a study of the cooperative management of Danube River resources which began with the end of the Cold War. It analyzes the development and ratification of the Danube River Protection Convention and other aspects of joint pro-environment activities from 1991 to 1996. Its title The Danube: A River Basin in Transition is to be published in early 1997.
Users, investors in new and/or joint business ventures, national and international governments, research scientists, the media, NGOs and the general public will be served on the Internet and through the distribution of CD-ROM and diskettes.

Inhalt

1. Sharing Water Quality Data: Policies and Programmes.- The Workshop: Content, format, conclusions.- Data and Data-Sharing: Key to transboundary water quality protection.- The Rhine: Monitoring programmes and exchange of data within the ICPR.- The 1985 Bucharest Declaration: An important first step in Danube international water quality monitoring.- The Danube River Protection Convention: Environmental data sharing provisions.- 2. Data-Sharing Programmes and Policies.- Water Quality Monitoring Programmes for Rivers in Germany.- Dutch (Inter)National Water Quality Data Programmes.- Water Management: Monitoring in the United Kingdom.- Design and Implementation of the National Water-Quality Assessment Programme: A United States example.- Environmental Policies in Transition: A NATO partnership country symposium.- 3. The Status of Data and Information-Sharing in the Danube Basin.- Development of Information Activities in Support of the Environmental Programme for the Danube River Basin.- The Work of the Monitoring, Laboratory and Information Management Sub-Group.- The Danube Grants Programme and the NGO Role in Management of the Danube Basin.- Transboundary Pollution Reduction in Three Danube River Basins.- 4. Bi-lateral Data Sharing: Five Case Studies.- Austrian-German Data-Sharing.- Data-Sharing between the Slovak and Czech Republics in the Morava River Basin.- Sharing Data Across National Boundaries in the Upper Tisza River Basin.- Crossborder Monitoring of Water Quality in Slovenia.- The Bulgarian-Romanian Reach of the Danube: Suggestions for improving monitoring and data-sharing.- 5. Consensus on a Strategy.- Conclusions and Recommendations.- List of Contributors.- Workshop Participants.