

Europe is the world's second-smallest continent by surface area, covering about 10,180,000 square kilometers or 2% of the Earth's surface and about 6.8% of its land area. Of Europe's approximately 50 countries/states, Russia is by far the largest by both area and population, while the Vatican City is the smallest. Of these, 22 countries/States came together in 1995 to establish the ICID's European Regional Working Group (ERWG) with the motto "Comprehensive land and water management in European River basins for the sustainable development of the rural landscape". With 23.2 million hectares of irrigated land and 9 % of the world’s population, the ERWG today provides knowledge transfer and exchange of experiences in matters of trans-boundary waters and land management in European countries; co-operation of experts and organizations engaged in nationaland international objectives and development and promotion of border crossing projects and conferences.
The WG has many Sub-committees working on topics of regional/ local significance. The WG has brought out several valuable publications like:
- ERWG Letter
- European Sector Vision on Water for Food and Rural Development (Report) - In PDF format
- ICID Guide "How to work out a drought mitigation strategy" (Guideline)
- Water Resources Management in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovenia (Book)
- Diffuse Entries in Rivers of the Odra Basin (Research Report)
- Proceedings of several European conferences
- Spanish Version of the DVWK Guidelines on How to Mitigate the Drought Effects
The WG has organized 25 Regional Conferences so far on topics of current importance
Mandate: The mission of ERWG is to promote awareness about critical ICID relevant water issues at all levels in Europe and to pay special attention to the environmentally sustainable water management in Europe.
Sl. No. | Name | Country | Membership | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mr. Ian William Makin | ianwmakin@gmail.com | United Kingdom | Chair |
2 | Prof. Peter Kovalenko | Ukraine | Vice Chair | |
3 | Mr. Olli-Matti Verta | olli-matti.verta@mmm.fi | Finland | Secretary |
4 | Mr. Peter Alexey Yurievich | Russia | Member | |
5 | Prof.dr.sc. Davor Romic | dromic@agr.hr | Croatia | Member |
6 | Mr. Pedro Eduardo da Cunha Serra | aderito@inag.pt | Portugal | Member |
7 | Dr. Marco Arcieri | m.arcieri@icid.org | Italy | Member |
8 | Dr. Sami Bouarfa | sami.bouarfa@inrae.fr | France | Member |
9 | Mr. Hannes Puu | hannes.puu@pma.agri.ee | Estonia | Member |
10 | Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Vorlop | Germany | Member | |
11 | Ing. Frederik M. Cate | Austria | Member | |
12 | Dr. Irina G. Pankova | rusiptrid@mail.ru | Russia | Member |
13 | Dr. Mrs. Irene Bondarik | Russia | Member | |
14 | Prof. Dr. Ing. Ion Nicolaescu | Romania | Member | |
15 | Dr. (A.L.) Pol Hakstege | pol.hakstege@rws.nl | Netherlands | Member |
16 | Dr. John Martin | john.martin@opw.ie | Ireland | Member |
17 | Dr. Laszlo G. Hayde | Hungary | Member | |
18 | Prof. dr. Svatopluk Matula | Matula@AF.CZU.CZ | Czech Republic | Member |
19 | Dr. (Mrs.) Sabine Seidel | sabine.seidel@tu-dresden.de | Germany | Young Professional |
AGENDA/MINUTES/REPORTS/PUBLICATIONS-
Water Saving in Irrigation, Outcome of the Conference, 13-14 November 2019, Montpellier, France
CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE+

Vice President Hon. Ian William Makin, United Kingdom (2015-2018)
ACTIVITIES+
ANNOUNCEMENT+
PRESENTATIONS+
GALLERY+
AWARDS+
ARCHIEVE+
The European Regional Working Group (ERWG) of ICID was founded at the 46th IEC Meeting in Rome in September, 1995, and is acting under the motto "Comprehensive land and water management in European river basins for the sustainable development of the rural landscape". The tasks of ERWG can be summarized :
- Knowledge transfer and exchange of experience in matters of border crossing water and land management in European countries
- Co-operation of experts and organisations engaged in national, supranational and international objectives of water management and irrigated agriculture
- Development and promotion of border crossing projects and conferences