Zsuzsanna Flachner

Individuals Matter: Exploring Strategies of Individuals to Change the Water Policy for the Tisza River in Hungary

This paper offers a novel interpretation of the introduction of floodplain rehabilitation and rural development into the water policy for the Tisza River in Hungary. It looks at the role of individuals and the strategies that they used to bring about water policy change. Five strategies are explored: developing new ideas, building coalitions to sell ideas, using windows of opportunity, playing multiple venues and orchestrating networks. Our discussion on the importance of each strategy and the individuals behind it is based on interviews, group discussions and a literature review. The international and political attention sparked by a series of floods, dike failure and a major cyanide spill, which preceded national elections, opened a window of opportunity for launching ideas. A new regional coalition successfully introduced floodplain rehabilitation into the water policy arena. Our analysis emphasizes the importance of a responsible civil servant who recognizes a new policy idea at an abstract level and a credible regional coalition that advocates the new idea regionally.

Critical load mapping of heavy metals and other long range transboundary air pollutants in Europe: A case study of Hungary

food chain such as GHG gases, SO„, NOx and heavy metals (Flachner, Zs.-Ndmeth, TToth, R.,2002). Recently mor attention is paid on health effects of particulate matters and heavy metal pollution effects on food production, which problems are a mixture of long range and regional, local pollution. Under the supervision of the UN ECE Secretariat the Working Group on Effects, the Task Force of the International Co-operative programme on the Modelling and Mapping of Critical levels (CL) implement the programme of the UNECE on providing assistance for decision makers on abatement strategies since 1980, coordinated by the CCE (Coordination Centre for Effects, RIVM, Bilthoven, the Netherlands) (M.Posch-J.P.Hettelingh, 2005). The programme offered for all participating parties of the convention a harmonised, jointly developed methodology the so called critical load calculating, modelling and mapping. The method is used in the integrated assessment (IA) modelling since the 2 Sulphur Protocol (Oslo, 1994) very successfully almost for 1.2 million different ecosystem types at a scale of 50km x 50km EMEP grid. The present work of the WG contributes to the Clean Air for Europe (CAFE) EU programme successful implementation. The ICP M&M has updated CL for several transboundary HM (Cd, Pb, Hg) air pollutants as well, which can be applied by National Focal Centres (NFC) in member states, comparing them with the actual deposition of HM. The last two years the responsible Ministry for Environment and Water did not have sufficient resources to continue subsidizing the work of the Hungarian NFC, so the results presented are building on the existing data and on the results of the Hungarian Meterological Service.

Criteria for sustainable land management at Tisza floodplain in the light of multi-functionality

- ageing - migration from the region - increasing minority issues (gypsies) - high unemployment rate (avg. 30%. but up to 70%) - low education and awareness, loss of traditional knowledge Economic : - poverty, segregation - land fragmentation, unclear ownership due to uncompleted land consolidation (LC), need for land use (LU) change - lack of financial capital, high cost of loans - lack of high quality, optimal scale machinery and technologies - lack of management capacity and co-operation These problems cannot be solved with singe measure-based linear approaches on sustainable manner. To find integrated, sustainable solutions, measures several methods and procedures should be incorporated, where complex criteria-system has to be applied. The criteria-settings has a formal and informal element and it is based on the integrated resource assessment at different spatial and time scales. In the followings these criteria setting methodology is described to achieve a sustainable land management, development, based on the program development of the Bereg floodplain revitalisation program as a case study 1 .