In the frame of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) the Priority area 4 (Water quality) and 5 (Environmental risk) hold a Side Event on “Flood protection and water management related issues in the Danube Region to share experiences, best practice and new initiations” under the patronage of the XXXV. Annual Conference of the Hungarian Hydrological Society. As a matter of curiosity it has to be mentioned that the side-event was the first international event in the history of the Annual Conferences of the Hungarian Hydrological Society.

The event was organized in Mosonmagyaróvár, on 5 July 2017 in joint cooperation of two EUSDR priority areas, the priority area on water quality (PA4) and priority area on environmental risks (PA5). The event had two main sessions:

EUSDR PA5 – Managing environmental risks in the Danube River Basin
EUSDR PA4 – Towards reaching good Status of Waters in the Danube River Basin

All together 47 participants from 5 countries visited the event during the day. Since the conference had its special feature, that participants can migrate in between the different sessions of the conference generally 25-35 experts were listening the different presentations of the side event.

The final agenda of the event can be downloaded from here.

Mr Tamás Gampel General Secretary of the Hungarian Hydrological Society Water Management Department opened the meeting. Following Mr Gampel opening words Mr Károly Gombás on behalf of EUSDR PA5 and Mrs Diana Heilmann on behalf of EUSDR PA4 welcomed the participants and introduced in brief the main objectives of the event. Thereafter the support of the Danube Transnational Programme towards water management in the Danube basin was introduced by Mr. Gusztáv Csomor on behalf of DTP Joint Secretariat

The aim of the side event was to share the experiences of international flood protection and water management in the Danube River Basin according to present good practices, new techniques and technologies by international and national experts, as well as to introduce the running, new or under preparation Cross-Border or Transnational Co-operation Programmes/Projects that draw attention to the possibilities of the joint flood protection and water management problems and to the current international trends.

During the PA5 session Mr. Károly Gombás Priority Area coordinator informed the attendants about the recent activities of PA5, submitted projects, and summarized for the first time the conclusions of the flood protection education workshop held on the international Danube Day 2017 in Budapest. The representative of ICPDR shortly introduced the first Flood Risk Management Plan of the Danube River Basin. National experts presented the operative flood protection experiences in Romania, the proactive Austrian-Hungarian flood management cooperation experiences along the Lajta/Leitha river, experiences of flood forecasting developments in the Rába/Raab catchment area, the basin-wide Hungarian-Ukrainian flood control measures along the Tisza/Tisa river, the Croatian-Hungarian experiences during the ice management of the Danube in January 2017 and IPA FLOODS programme  for prevention, preparedness and response to floods in the Western-Balkans was introduced.

The PA4 session “Towards reaching good Status of Waters in the Danube River Basin” was focusing on information sharing between projects of Danube Transnational Programme Thematic Pole on Water Management. The four related projects (CAMARO-D, DANUBESEDIMENT, DriDanube and JOINTISZA) presentations were also focusing on the linkage to EUSDR activities and synergies between the projects. As an additional ‘newcomer’ the FrameWat project (Interreg Central Europe) was also presented. As an important block of the PA4 session, future strategic topics have also been discussed.

The presentations of the side-event can be downloaded from here.

 

Acknowledgement

Many people contributed to the successful organization of the event, in particular:

The EUSDR PA5 and EUSDR PA4 Hungarian Teams, the colleagues of the Hungarian Hydrological Society and colleagues of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Secretariat of EUSDR Ministerial Commissioner.

Special thanks has to be expressed to the presenters of the event and for their valuable presentations.

 

Funding Programme

The organization of EUSDR PA5 session was supported by the project: DTP-PAC1-PA5, Project Acronym – PA 05 Environmental Risks
The organization of EUSDR PA4 session was supported by the project DTP-PAC1-PA4, Project Acronym – PA 04 Water Quality

Project co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF)