The project has four work packages:
WP1 will establish a working group with national policy makers and stakeholders from the catchments, based on the existing Policy Science Working Group (PSWG) and supplemented by regional and local stakeholders in de NEW Harmonica and catchments. WP1 has a central role in the project, and the output of the other WPs will be used to distract, evaluate and harmonise environmental protection policy implementation actions, in close collaboration with local stakeholders.
WP2 focuses on assessment of N and P water quality targets in the catchments, the flows of nutrients and losses to waters from all economic activities and sectors, and methodologies to determine the required reduction in N and P loads to achieve the water quality targets. In this WP, different types of models are enhanced, applied and compared across the transboundary river basins in order to harmonise approaches to reduce sector nutrient losses in catchments.
In WP3, the trade-offs and synergies in impacts of best management practices (BMPs) on N and P fluxes, in the context of the targets set in the Farm to Fork strategy, and current water and climate policies, are examined. The possible pollution swapping impacts as a result of adopting BMPs to mitigate N and P fluxes will be assessed on a regional scale in NW using a uniform modelling approach.
In WP4, an assessment is made to comprehensively assess and integrate the institutional arrangements for land and water governance required in each of the selected catchment systems to manage the trade-off and synergies in N and P management and adaption to climate change. The work in WP4 is strongly linked to WP1. WP4 will provide practical recommendations to strengthen governance arrangements and improve the application of policy instruments, that will be used in the discussion with PSWG in WP1 to develop harmonised approaches.
WP5 will deal with project management, focusing on i) activity management, ii) financial and legal management, iii) Communication among partners, the PSWG, local stakeholders and with the European Commission, iv) organisation of (plenary) project meetings, and v) management of gender equality issues in the project. WP5 will deliver the internal NEW Harmonica project website (together with the WP1), the data management plan, and the contractual reports to the EC.
