Danube Water Balance – Development of a harmonized water balance modeling system for the Danube River Basin
The Danube Water Balance project aims to improve joint, transboundary, and cross-sectoral water management effectiveness in the Danube River Basin (DRB) to cope with water quantity issues. The project will deliver a basin-wide water balance model for surface and groundwater, tested in transboundary sub-basins, and apply climate scenarios. It will improve data management and capacity building by preparing a common training material and establishing an expert hub.
Project description
Extreme trends like climate change impacts cause significant water balance issues in the Danube River Basin (DRB), already posing significant environmental, economic, and societal challenges. 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 are needed to cope with the transnational water quantity challenges of the basin. The Danube Water Balance project aims to overcome this situation and contribute to sustainable, integrated transnational water management in the DRB. The project aims to develop a harmonized water balance modeling system in the DRB.
The DRB is one of the world's most diverse transboundary river basins because 14 countries share their territory with different cultural, societal, and economic backgrounds. Therefore, it was essential to establish a broad partnership to implement this project. All 14 DRB countries are represented in the project, involving 20 PPs from 11 countries (6 from 3 non-EU ones) and 13 ASPs. It is the first time that all Danube countries will work jointly to achieve a better understanding and a common interpretation of the water balance and lay the foundations for improved water management.
Project acronym: Danube Water Balance
Project title: Development of a harmonized water balance modeling system for the Danube River Basin
Budget: 2 999 983 EUR
Duration: 30 months (01.01.2024. – 30.06.2027.)
Lead partner organization: OVF (Hungary) & unofficially co-leader: Serbia
Further Information can be found here: https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/danube-water-balance
Our three main outputs
- 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 in 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 modeling. Both the data repository and the tools will be open-access. Therefore, the list of beneficiaries extends from water experts using the developed model through experts from other water-related fields to decision-makers willing to understand the main characteristics of the DRB as a hydrological system.
- Elaborated water balance scenarios for four selected transboundary sub-basins, namely Morava (CZ, SK & AT), Tisa (HU, SK, RO, RS & UA), Upper Sava (SI & HR), and Drina (RS & BA). 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.
- Improved stakeholder insight into transboundary water balance methodology: The project will strongly emphasize sectoral stakeholder involvement and capacity building. In addition to the essential technical modeling steps, several training sessions will be conducted, and an expert hub will be established that will consist of modeling experts, water managers, and other professionals from water-related sectors.
UNSA project team
- prof. dr. Emina Hadžić, team leader
- prof. dr. Nusret Drešković, researcher/teacher,
- prof. dr. Senada Čengić-Džomba, researcher/teacher,
- prof. dr. Maja Arslanagić-Kalajdžić, researcher/teacher, financial manager,
- prof. dr. Hata Milišić, researcher/teacher,
- prof. dr. Suada Sulejmanović, researcher/teacher,
- Emir Hadžić, researcher/expert,
- Vedran Silajdžić, researcher/expert,
- Alma Bibović, researcher/expert,
- Emina Jahić, researcher/expert,
- Adela Nurković Kulenović, administrative staff,
- Alma Ajanović, comunication manager.