Enhancing environmental management capacities for sustainable use of the natural heritage of Central European SPA towns and regions as the driver for local and regional development.
Natural heritage, including natural deposits of mineral waters & hot springs are well known common feature of CE countries. Their potential is widely used in large number of SPAs that constitute very important element of natural & cultural heritage and also local & regional economy in health care, wellness & tourism sectors.
The common challenge that CE SPAs share is sustainable management of mineral & thermal waters deposits, especially reduction of pressures related to economic & urban development, mass tourism and careless sector policies became the basis for launching the HealingPlaces project. Project focus is to support sustainable development of SPAs, while protecting unique resources that constitute their basis. This will be done by extension of knowledge & awareness regarding influence of various factors on underground water deposits and by building multi-level and multi-territorial governance models of management of valuable natural SPA resources.
Crucial element of the project will be constructing of common, innovative & web-based tool for assessment of threats & pressures on mineral & hot waters deposits. This tool will be offered freely to wider CE community as a decision making support mechanism. Exchange of experience as well as the implementation of dedicated pilot actions will lead to elaboration of integrated strategy for SPA sustainable development. Project leads also to direct results through implementation of elaborated activities in local scale, where HealingPlaces will design, test & implement innovative solutions for mineral water sustainable management in SPAs through various models of participatory practices. Through cooperation of actors representing different levels & sectors, widely applicable methodologies, lessons learnt from several pilot actions will strengthen environmental considerations during spa-related interventions & support efficient reduction of conflicts between economic, social & environmental approaches.