Projects

EURO (European) FRIEND has contributed to and benefited from the 4th and 5th EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (RTD). The 3-year project ARIDE (Assessment of the Regional Impact of Droughts in Europe), completed in December 2000, was a project of the Environment and Climate Programme of the 4th RTD Framework Programme. The FRIEND project ASTHyDA (Analysis, Synthesis and Transfer of Knowledge and Tools on Hydrological Droughts Assessment through a European Network) was an accompanying measure in the 5th RTD Framework Programme. In the 6th EU Framework Programme FRIEND hydrologists have started to cooperate in a 4.5 year comprehensive integrated research project with the climate community in the WATCH (WATer and global CHange) project. Recently the 2-year 7th EU Framework project XEROCHORE was completed. XEROCHORE is an Exercise to Assess Research Needs and Policy Choices in Areas of Drought that aims to mitigate and to adapt to droughts, and hence reduce the risks they pose in Europe (extended abstract). Increasing priority in IHP-VII ensures that FRIEND research supports the technical implementation of both national and European policies. At the European level this is driven by the Water Framework Directive, the most significant piece of European water legislation, which entered into force in 2000 and recently produced the first generation of river basin management plans across Europe.

EURO-FRIEND also contributes to international organizations, such as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR), and the World Water Forum through the United Nations World Water Development Report (UN‘s flagship report on water). It has also close links with international initiatives - Euromediterranean Network of Experimental and Representative Basins (ERB) and Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB-IAHS).

EURO-FRIEND Europe is involved in capacity building through organizing study courses, field practicals and excursions and exchange of MSc and PhD students.

EURO-FRIEND has evolved into a well-developed network of hydrologists, who are implementing an active research programme within five scientific project groups:

1. Project 1: European Water Archive
2. Project 2: Low Flow and Drought
3. Project 3: Large-scale Variations in Hydrological Characteristics
4. Project 4: Techniques for Extreme Rainfall and Flood Runoff Estimation
5. Project 5: Catchment Hydrological and Biogeochemical Processes in a Changing Environment

© 2016 EURO-FRIEND

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