To strengthen the administrative and technical capacities of local authorities in terms of increasing their capability in water management and its sustainable use; the Work Package provides training courses and coaching on the job in three macro-areas:

• District plans
• Emergency management of extreme events caused by climate change
• Evaluation of the effectiveness of the measures contained in Management Plan

A6.1 Drawing-up of methodologies and guidelines

As part of this activity, methodological documents, guidelines and operational handbooks will be developed and disseminated. A national methodology (basic model) will be drawn up to perform economic analysis in line with the data-reporting requirements (applying also the principles of “full cost recovery” and “polluter pays”), and national guidelines will be published for integrating water policy objectives into other policy areas (directives on floods, habitats, birds).

Handbooks will be produced containing elements for: identifying and exchanging environmental data on drought management; defining technical tools for coaching the planning of water balance at water-basin level as well as short-medium-term forecasting tools to support qualitative and quantitative resource management; compiling hydrological, environmental and economic reports; implementing the Sistema Informativo Nazionale DQA (Water Framework Directive -WFD) and installing the "Planning Dashboard".

A6.2 Strengthening the administrative capacity for the emergency management of extreme climate change events

On the basis of the positive actions already carried out at national level for the implementation of ‘integrated water governance’ – such as the control room set up in the Po district, and the so-called Commission for Water Protection in the Arno river basin - actions will be carried out both to ensure a stable coordination of the anti-drought measures and to provide guidance on the regulation of sampling and uses, including measures for adaptation to climate change.

To this end, on-the-job coaching will be provided aimed at:

• Drawing up of Memoranda of Understanding for the creation of a permanent organisational model to address water crises caused by drought;
• Supporting the setting up of District Observatories, Steering Committees and Commissions to encourage the systematic and uniform collection of information on climatic and hydrological scenarios;
• Performing real-time monitoring of supply and consumption.

A6.3 Creating a ‘Planning Dashboard’ in all District Authorities

In order to contribute to a timely assessment of the effectiveness of the measures set out in the Management Plans and, at the same time, to compare the state of the resource with the target ‘good level’ of the body of water, and to choose the most effective actions and to identify exemptions in the Directive according to art. 4, special support will be provided to the District Authorities (AdD in Italian) in order to achieve the full adoption and implementation of the ‘Planning Dashboard’ at local level.

Specifically, the support actions will be carried out through coaching on the job in:

• the operational installation of the planning dashboard;
• the development of access modes and levels of data feed and replication;
• to the correct use of the platform.

A6.4 Strengthening administrative capacity in district planning

The activities envisaged for strengthening and developing administrative capacity in district planning will be structured in five separate macro-issues:

1. River Basin Planning: activities aimed both to harmonise planning at national level and to strengthen professional skills;
2. Natural Water Retention Measures measures (NWRM): activities aimed at disseminating the Italian implementation of the recommendations set out in the NWRM document;
3. Water Crisis: activities aimed at organising structures and operating models to support the setting up of steering groups, in particular by the presentation of best practices from other districts;
4. Economic analysis: activities aimed at ensuring that the Programme of Measures reported in the River Basin Management Plans meets the requirements of the Water Framework Directive;
5. Reporting: activities aimed at ensuring that WISE reporting conforms to the new stand-ards set out by the European Commission and is consistent with the obliga-tions set out in the various directives.

Altogether, activities include the organisation of workshops (both at national and local level) and coaching on the job, broken down into modules that differ in number and duration according to topic.

A6.5 Communication

National events will be organized in order to ensure thorough knowledge of the activities and results achieved.