The main goal of the project will be to create an operational and integrated comprehensive Decision Support System (DSS) for optimal water management of catchments 
in borderland regions, in context of the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.   
   
The development of the proposed DSS will allow an integrated water management system within the scope of the transboundary catchment. It will be able to cope 
with the complexity of the water resources systems and the uncertainty of decision-making. The DSS will be built around modules that allow simulation of the 
range of different climatic, topographic, environmental and socio-economic conditions found in various EU and candidate countries transboundary catchment 
areas. This will allow its application not only within Europe and European borderland regions, but also worldwide. The borderland problems in water management 
occur not only in Europe, they are a sensitive problem also within, e.g., Africa and Latin America, where they are achieving even the strategic importance from 
the point of view of socio-economic approaches of the border states in a sense of their human utilization.    
   
Certainly, an integrated DSS might be used not only within the borderland catchments between the individual states, but also for water management control 
at the boundary between provinces or territorial (county) regions. The DSS to be developed will focus mainly on pollution, flooding and water use issues.   
   
Another objective of the project will be the establishment of an European platform for initiating and promoting international co-operation and networking 
that will allow a more detailed insight to transboundary water/environment and related socio/economic problems. This will be achieved by connecting TRANSCAT 
with pre-existing EU Research of the FP5, in the perspective of the forthcoming FP6 and, connecting TRANSCAT with EU institutions involved in the process of 
implementing the WFD, with specific reference to the problems of pre-accession countries.   
   
The proposed project incorporates a research program aiming to avoid the extended aquifer contamination, improvement of groundwater and aquifer quality, 
and reducing of flooding risks under the umbrella of adequate integrated water resources management (IWRM).    
   
Relevant tools will be developed and procedures defined to be able to prepare the necessary local information for selecting a most promising transboundary 
management scenario and take decisions on it. By following up this scenario with local project development in line with certain predefined priorities, synergies 
can be initiated and use of funds optimised. Although member states have to take charge of the management of the programmes and financing, this procedure based 
on the filter of a regional development strategy can guarantee transformation of EU-policies into regional measures in a more reliable and traceable form. 
Results in relation to strategy and policies can be regularly monitored and measurable feedbacks used for programme optimisation (e.g. in ongoing programmes 
and actions like the structural funds, INTERREGIII, LEADER+, SAPARD, ISPA, CBC-PHARE).