Flood Forecasting and Disaster Risk Management – a Case Study of Danube River

Abstract

The Danube and its tributaries have been crossing mountains and plains in their almost unchanged riverbeds for thousands of years, regardless of national and administrative boundaries. Nevertheless, even decades ago, several countries provided access to only limited data and information concerning the water level and flood protection status of their rivers. In recent years, information was exchanged mainly on the basis of bilateral agreements and on successful activities of basin-wide organizations, but for others, information could only be obtained by browsing the Internet, which is sometimes rather complicated and definitely time-consuming. The EU Strategy for the Danube Region Environmental Risks Priority Area initiated a project aimed at developing the Danube Hydrological Information System, which was supported by the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River. A comprehensive overview of the complex national flood and ice forecasting systems, identification of the shortcomings of the existing forecasting practices as well as an improvement of the exchange and availability of hydrological and meteorological data between the involved countries constituted crucial fields of interests for the project. Hence the main aim of the article is to present and discuss key data and functionalities of the system. The key findings show that all authorized meteorological and hydrological data of the Danube River are stored in a central database and made available online to all licensed hydrological and flood protection institutions for further processing in virtually real time. At this moment 12 countries of the Danube have joined forces to work out the proposals that are essential for the future, for safer Danube.