Pilot Action Poland

Balanced and sustained management of mineral waters in Lower Silesia

The Lower Silesian Voivodship pilot action is related to the widest possible implementation of the methodologies, ideas and analytical tools developed in the project to conduct sustainable spa management, not only in the area of the spa municipalities themselves, but also in the areas of municipalities covered by the range of mineral and thermal waters resources on which the spa resorts are based.

The Lower Silesian Voivodship has the potential of 11 spa resorts, in which it is partly owner. Spa development are a very important sector of general development of the southern part of the voivodship together with tourist[1]activities. That is why the key approach to development is the right approach to spa activities, by paying special attention to natural resources, thanks to which this activity can even operate, is particularly important for the regional authorities. In this respect, the regional self-government has been conducting intensive cooperation with spa companies and their surroundings for years to support sustainable development. The cooperation is also conducted on a cross-border basis, due to the location of the voivodship on the border with the Czech Republic, where also in the close vicinity spa resort activities are carried out, often using common sources of mineral and thermal waters.

As part of the pilot action, based on years of experience in cooperation in the field of spa and many existing collaborations with many partners, we anticipate the following:

  • Identification of key stakeholders – we need to integrate, apart from spa municipalities, which are the natural stakeholder of the project, cooperation with municipalities located in the area of deposits, and not spas, institutions with competence in the protection of deposits;
  • Testing tool on local needs – in pilot area, with particular emphasis on obtaining user-friendly tools that respond to their needs, so that their subsequent implementation is as effective as possible;
  • Identification and correlation of threats and hazards with investment and development and identified local sources of pressures in pilot area – finding areas in the activities of municipalities where emphasis should be placed on a common solution for the protection of deposits
  • Workshop of practical use of tool for stakeholders – using the potential of stakeholders in such a way that the tools developed in the project can be useful and used also after the project is completed
  • Workout common protection strategy on local level and integrated action plan and specific recommendations elaborated for all administrative units with letter of intent for adopting prepared action plan will be sign by key actors during final conference – finally adopt administrative solutions that can become used in management of deposit areas to secure spa activities.[1]