Workshop and site visit held at the pilot location in Serbia

The City of Sombor, together with project partners from Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine, is participating in the Interreg Danube Region Programme, which brings together the countries of the Danube basin under the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), with the RESTORIVER project.

The main objective of the project is to improve our capability to respond to the challenges of climate change and the impacts of human interventions on riverine and riparian urban areas. At several locations along the Danube basin in the participating countries, works are being carried out to potentially reduce the risks of droughts, floods, and heatwaves. Within the territory of the City of Sombor lies one of the six so-called pilot locations where research and activities are taking place as part of the project. The site in question is the Danube side arm – Dondo, located within the “Gornje Podunavlje” nature reserve. Over the past year, monitoring and preparatory works have been carried out at this site to create the conditions for beginning canal excavation and enabling water inflow from the Danube even during lower river levels compared to earlier periods. The goal of the works is to achieve 150 days of water inflow from the Danube into the side arm, which will have a positive effect on its biodiversity. The works are planned to be completed in the coming days.

In line with the project’s activity plan, on Thursday, September 18, a site visit to the pilot location was organized for project partners and collaborators, followed by a workshop on further steps for nature protection at the pilot location, as well as the application of nature-based flood protection measures at other sites within the “Gornje Podunavlje” Special Nature Reserve. Special attention was given to locations in the Republic of Croatia where similar measures are being implemented, and on this occasion, an expert analysis and comparison of the results of such works were carried out.