Sectoral Activities: Navigation Strategy & Briefing

Strategy

The successful implementation of NbS in freshwater restoration relies heavily on collaboration and coordination across sectors due to their interdependencies and shared reliance on healthy ecosystems. Each Sectoral Strategy highlights key connections with others, emphasizing the need for integrated approaches to overcome challenges and leverage opportunities for transformation.

The Navigation Strategy has focussed on developing ideas with those responsible for managing and maintaining navigational fairways. These ‘waterway managers’ have a remit for integrated water management, and therefore, already engage with, and manage water resources for, a wide range of different economic sectors. Due to this framing, the Strategy does not identify particular cross-sectoral working practices as these are already part of a ‘waterway managers’ remit.

Briefing

Inland navigation for freight and passenger transport can support the EU Green Deal objectives. However, maintaining fairway conditions despite floods and droughts and whilst enhancing natural ecological function remains a challenge. MERLIN believes in involving the navigation sector more effectively in integrated infrastructure development that considers the effect on the wider catchment, because this is key to achieving these win-wins.

Strategy contributors: Tom Buijse (Deltares), Anna Kosters (Deltares), Tamas Gruber (WWF Hungary), Anna Bérczi-Siket (WWF Hungary), Elmar Fuchs (BfG, PIANC), Michael Gerisch (BfG), Kirsty Blackstock (JHI), Robert Tögel (viadonau).

Briefing authors: Tamas Gruber, Andrea Samu, Eva Hernandez Herrero, Anna Bérczi-Siket, Kirsty Blackstock