Water is involved, directly or indirectly, with many activities and needs that have to be met. The large scale and importance of water projects, the investments needed, the difficulty in predicting the results, and the irreversible character of the decisions have made decision making a complex scientific process. This paper presents a multicriteria analysis (MCA) tool for evaluating water resource management (WRM) strategies and selecting the most appropriate among them, using as an example a Greek area based on agricultural economy, which faces water scarcity problems. Seven alternative strategies were evaluated under hydrological and economic criteria. Four techniques were used—multi attribute utility theory (MAUT), analytic hierarchy process (AHP), elimination and choice expressing reality (ELECTRE), and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS)—based on the main MCA techniques (utility theory, analytical hierarchy, outranking theory, and classification theory, respectively), to compare their performance, and to reach the most appropriate and ‘fitting’ method for the examined problem. The weightings extracted from two samples, (i) a sample of decision makers/stakeholders and (ii) a group of WRM experts, were used to compare the results. The process was carried out for each questionnaire, and thus the model shows the uncertainty of each sample group and of each method, as well as the overall uncertainty. The results illustrate the reality of the WRM problems of the watershed, enlighten their roots, and have further strengthened our conviction that the cooperation between the scientific community and the authorities is vital for more sustainable and efficient WRM.

The European Green Deal (EGD) is the growth strategy for Europe, covering multiple domains, and aiming to an equitable, climate neutral European Union by 2050. The UN Agenda 2030, encompassing 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), establishes the foundation for a global sustainability transition. The integration of the SDGs into the EGD is an overlooked issue in the literature, despite Europe’s slow progress to achieve the sustainability targets. We employed a machine-learning text-mining method to evaluate the extent of SDG integration within the 74 EGD policy documents published during 2019–2023. The findings reveal a substantial alignment of EGD policies with SDGs related to clean energy (SDG7), climate action (SDG13), and sustainable consumption and production (SDG12). In contrast, there is a significant underrepresentation in areas related to social issues such as inequalities, poverty, hunger, health, education, gender equality, decent work, and peace, as indicated by lower alignment with SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, and 16. Temporal trends suggest a marginal increase in the attention given to environmental health (especially water and marine life) and gender equality. Furthermore, we illustrate the alignment of EGD policies with the six essential sustainability transformations proposed by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) in 2019 for the operationalization of the SDGs. The results indicate that besides the prevalence of “Energy Decarbonization and Sustainable Industry”, all areas have received attention, except for the “Health, Wellbeing and Demography”. The findings call for a more integrated approach to address the complete spectrum of sustainability in a balanced manner.

Undertaking integrated and sustainable water resources management (ISWRM) and providing socially acceptable solutions with scientifically solid bases is a dynamic and challenging process. Two basic pillars–umbrellas can be identified in the literature: stakeholder engagement and analysis; and integrated monitoring–modelling in the form of a decision support system (DSS) that can assess, evaluate and rank the management options. This study presents a framework that can be used as a good-practice example of successful stakeholder engagement (public engagement and collaboration with local communities towards shared visions) and an integrated DSS for ISWRM (including characterisation at catchment and local scales, programmes of measures and their evaluation): the Framework for Integrated Land and Landscape Management (FILLM), developed by an Irish multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder platform, the Water Forum. The fundamental theoretical principles and practical aspects of the FILLM are analysed. A step-by-step guide is proposed for its application, bridging the above pillars, using examples, reviewing methods and software, and analysing challenges and trends. It can help both socio-economic and environmental scientists (modellers) understand each other’s roles and find reviews of useful tools and methods for their work. This work can be a reference point for future ISWRM and environment management and can contribute to holistic education on such topics.

Wildfires affect and change the burned sites’ condition, functionality, and ecosystem services. Altered hydrologic processes, such as runoff, increased streamflows, and sediment transport, are only a few examples resulting from burned soils, vegetation, and land cover. Such areas are flood-prone and face risks of extreme peak flows, reduced infiltration, water pollution affecting habitats, and hydromorphological changes. In this study, we present the different post-fire erosion and flood protection treatments that have been developed to avoid and mitigate the consequences and risks mentioned above. We categorize them into Land, Channel, Barrier, and Road treatments and analyze their types, such as cover-based methods, barriers, mulching, in-channel treatments, such as check dams, seeding, or even chemical treatments. Examples of how such treatments were used in real cases are provided, commenting on their results in flood and erosion protection. We found that cover changes were more effective than barriers, as they provided an immediate ground-cover increase in both Mediterranean and US sites. We explore the factors that play a role in their effectiveness, including storm duration and intensity, topography and slopes, land cover and uses, treatment implementation-installation, as well as fire-related factors such as burn severity. These factors have different effects on different treatments, so we further discuss the suitability of each one depending on the site’s and treatment’s characteristics. The outcomes of this work are expected to improve the understanding of the practical aspects of these treatments, providing for the first time a synthesis of the available knowledge on the multiple complex factors that can determine their efficiency.

The proactive sustainable management of scarce water across vulnerable agricultural areas of South Europe is a timely issue of major importance, especially under the recent challenges affecting complex water systems. The Basin District of Thessaly, Greece’s driest rural region, has a long history of multiple issues of an environmental, planning, economic or administrative nature, as well as a history of conflict. For the first time, the region’s key-stakeholders, including scientists and policymakers, participated in tactical meetings during the 19-month project “Water For Tomorrow”. The goal was to establish a common and holistic understanding of the problems, assess the lessons learned from the failures of the past and co-develop a list of policy recommendations, placing them in the broader context of sustainability. These refer to enhanced and transparent information, data, accountability, cooperation/communication among authorities and stakeholders, capacity building, new technologies and modernization of current practices, reasonable demand and supply management, flexible renewable energy portfolios and circular approaches, among others. This work has significant implications for the integrated water resources management of similar south-European cases, including the Third-Cycle of the River Basin Management Plans and the International Sustainability Agendas.