Review of flood and ice forecasting systems and methodologies in the Danube River countries

The Danube River basin is the most international river basin in the world with many large tributaries having catchments in 19 countries. Since frequency of floods in the Danube River basin increased in the last decades, the need for a more effective and harmonized regional and cross-border cooperation in the field of flood and ice forecasting arises. The need for enhanced cooperation in flood protection was officially recognized in various international and interregional policy documents, therefore DAREFFORT project was initiated under the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme to identify the state of the art of flood and ice forecasting techniques and raise awareness among the countries about the basic problems of flood and ice forecasting (e.g. the lack of a unified data exchange at the catchment level) and to help implement the Danube Flood Risk Management Plan in line with the Flood Risk Directive.

The main aim of the DAREFFORT project is to give a comprehensive overview about the complex national flood and ice forecasting systems and to eliminate the shortcomings of the existing forecasting practices as well as to improve the exchange and availability of hydrological and meteorological data between the participating countries with establishment of the Danube Hydrological Information System (Danube HIS). In order to achieve this goal, national reports on the status quo of the Danube regional flood and ice forecasting system and methodologies as well as a detailed questionnaire were prepared by all project partner countries. Information about the countries’ hydrological and meteorological data availability, recording methods and coverage with the monitoring networks, codings and national database system, data flow, forecasting time intervals and accuracy, response times, cross-border issues and data dissemination etc. was covered in the questionnaire. The evaluation of 12 national reports and results of questionnaires showed a comprehensive overview of flood and ice forecasting systems and methodologies in the Danube River basin.

The gathered information about national flood and ice forecasting practices and the acquired knowledge through the project implementation process will result into an international policy proposal for a harmonized data exchange protocol, including the sufficient quantity, quality, and format of the data exchange.