2nd General Assembly meeting: time to explore las aguas de Valencia!

One year after the launch of the RETOUCH NEXUS project, what a thrill it is to celebrate the start of the new year by meeting up in person in Valencia (Spain) from January 25 to 27!

On the agenda: review of project progress and achievements, brainstorming and discussions on key outcomes, identification of action items and responsibilities… and of course: definition of our next steps for the second year of the project!

This meeting was a major step forward for our project, as it enabled our partners to discuss future directions and challenges for hydroeconomic modeling, as well as suggestions on stakeholder engagement strategies and innovative formats. Many ideas emerged from these discussions, including the creation of synergies with other organizations involved in existing initiatives, as well as with our sister projects within the “Water Governance 2027” synergy group (InnWater and GOVAQUA).

RETOUCH NEXUS 2nd general assembly meeting was also an opportunity to conduct interviews with patner representatives to describe their case studies and their main challenges, as well as to present the recommendations they would make to water actors and other stakeholders in charge of local water governance.

The interviews will then be published on the website and promoted on social media.
Stay tuned!

On the third day of the meeting, our host, the Technical University of Valencia (UPV), represented by Pr. Manuel Pulido-Velázquez, Hector Macian-Sorribes and Adria Rubio-Martin, researchers at the Research Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering (IIAMA), took us to the Albufera natural park, part of the project’s Spanish case study, the Júcar river basin, located in the Mediterranean basin of eastern Spain. We took a boat trip to the Albufera bird sanctuary and ended with a walk through the Devesa del Saler.

Albufera park Spanish case study - RETOUCH NEXUS

During the meeting, a special session enabled colleagues from UPV’s GoNEXUS project to present their work and share their ideas and experiences with RETOUCH NEXUS partners.

Manuel Pulido, as GoNEXUS coordinator and RETOUCH NEXUS principal investigator for UPV, summarized the GoNEXUS project and the synergies that exist with our project. Amparo Martinez Domingo explained how stakeholder engagement and participatory modeling are carried out within GoNEXUS. Ivan Lagos presented the hydroeconomic models GoNEXUS is currently developing for the Spanish case studies. Their presentations received positive feedback and interesting questions from the audience.