Opening conference of the Interreg project „Danube Water Balance (27-28/03/2024)

The opening conference of the Interreg project „Danube Water Balance”, led by the General Directorate of Water Management, was held between 27th and 28th March, 2024 in Budapest, with the participation of more than 60 people.

The extreme climate change impacts cause significant water balance issues in the
 Danube River Basin (DRB), already posing major challenges for the environment, the economy and the whole society. Water management in the DRB is characterized by scattered data availability and various national calculation methods, ultimately leading to country-scale or sub-regional mosaics about the water balance. 

A jointly developed data management and a water balance model is needed to cope with the transnational water quantity challenges of the basin.

The project aims to overcome this situation and contribute to sustainable, integrated transnational water management in the DRB.

The Danube Water Balance project is an international initiative consisting of 20 partner institutions, the overall objective of the project is to develop a harmonized water balance modelling system in the DRB. Main outputs will cover four fields:

1.    Improved data management for present and future water balance calculations. This will consist of (i) a data repository for all input and output data of the model, (ii) a set of tools supporting input data collection, validation, conversion and result visualization and interpretation and (iii) a new data management strategy providing a sound basis for data related activities of future water balance and water management modelling. 

2.       A state-of-the-art, open-source water balance model for the DRB, that allows the quantification of water balance components for the entire basin and for selected areas of interest. The model will be calibrated and validated against measured data collected and processed by jointly defined data management protocols, assuring the common acceptance of model results. 

3.       Elaborated water balance scenarios for 4 selected transboundary sub-basins, namely Morava, Tisa, Upper Sava, and Drina. This key action within the project will be the cornerstone of future cooperation by providing a good exercise for our international experts to test and enhance the Danube River Basin Water Balance model (DRBWBM) and the founded common data repository. 

4.    Stakeholder involvement into transboundary water balance methodology: strong emphasis will be put on sectoral stakeholder involvement and capacity building in the project. Besides the essential technical modelling steps, it is planned that several trainings will be carried out and an expert hub will be established that will consist of modelling experts, water managers, and other professionals from water-related sectors. 

Projekt duration: 01.01.2024 - 30.06.2024

Lead partner: General Directorate of Water Management of Hungary

The following partner institutions are involved in the professional implementation of the project:

·         Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary)

·         Vienna University of Technology (Austria)

·         International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria)

·         Brno University of Technology (Czech Republic)

·         Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (Slovakia)

·         Slovenian Environment Agency (Slovenia)

·         Croatian Waters (Croatia)

·         Institute for Water Management (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

·         University of Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

·         Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad (Serbia)

·         Jaroslav Cerni Water Institute (Serbia)

·         Public Water Management Company „Srbijavode“ (Serbia)

·         National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management (Romania)

·         National Administration Romanian Waters (Romania)

·         National Meteorological Administration (Romania)

·         Executive Agency "Exploration and Maintenance of the Danube River (Bulgaria)

·         National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (Bulgaria)

·         Bulgarian Water Association (Bulgaria)

·         Institute of Ecology and Geography (Moldova)

During the opening event, the main goals were set of the project, the specific objectives constituting the professional framework, as well as the professional goals of the participating partners and strategic partners. This was followed by workshops moderated by the leaders of the specific objectives (work packages), where the main tasks for the coming months were defined.

Total project budget: EUR 3.028.319,50

Total EU funds: EUR 2.442.655,60