XXIX CONFERENCE OF THE DANUBIAN COUNTRIES ON HYDROLOGICAL FORECASTING AND HYDROLOGICAL BASES OF WATER MANAGEMENT

In Europe and developed countries in general, instrumental hydrological data are quite common, while in developing countries the benefits of instrumental data cannot be fully exploited. However, even in the case of higher amount of traditional instrumental data (e.g. times series spanning maximally several hundreds of years), many aspects cannot be completely understood without data covering wider areas. Especially, freely available remote sensing data are becoming more and more utilized in order to get a better idea of hydrological parameters variability over larger areas. Apart from spatial information, also information about past variability is currently intensively studied using different proxies such as the historical records of priceless importance to hydrologists. Thus, in hydrology, it is necessary to develop and maintain so-called data rescue practices, which are in different stages in the Danubian countries. Last but not least, hydrological services are currently equipped by new measuring instruments and the measurement homogeneity must be ensured. Therefore, aside from new methodologies emerging, also data homogeneity throughout the region should be discussed in this section, and the region of the Danube basin is not an exception, not only because of its traditional importance as one of the most largest rivers in Europe having its typical interrelationships with society, but also due to a long-term transnational cooperation among hydrologists and water managers (especially under the umbrella of IHP Danube) regarding the river and its basin which resulted in several valuable and unforgettable outcomes (e.g. monographs on water balance or floods), upon which experts should build further development in the region, possibly applicable also outside the basin.

Possible subtopics:

• Data: traditional & emerging, measurement, management & analysis
• Situation of the hydrological gauge network
• IHP Danube Monographs
• IHP Danube as the basis for transboundary scientific cooperation with a continuous operational and research work for decision makers
• Vision, mission and work plan of IHP Danube

Possible subtopics:

• DAREFFORT: Danube River Basin Enhanced Flood Forecasting Cooperation
  
  The DAREFFORT project has been devoted to improving the hydrological forecasting systems within the Danube basin and to exchanging the information between the hydrologists in the region. This section will be open to the presentation of any such projects with the aim of transferring the knowledge within the hydrological community in the Danube River basin.
  
  
• R language for hydrology (workshop)
  
  With reference to Slater et al (2019), it can be said that R is undoubtedly increasingly used free statistical software within hydrological community, which has been recently documented by several workshops organized during important hydrological meetings or even general assemblies. Not only young hydrologists who need to master various aspects of computational hydrology use this software. R has a great potential also for senior professionals. This fact is supported not only by various hydrological papers where a lot of R packages (libraries) are used and cited. Currently, R is employed in many computational areas of hydrology, including water balance and its individual components. Hydrological models have been implemented in different R packages as well. Oftentimes, hydrology needs to be connected with spatial analyses usually carried out in geographical information systems and present the results to stakeholders, policy and decision makers. R integrates all of this, which, finally, inspired the organizers of the conference to arrange the workshop devoted to it in order to show the R power in hydrology of the Danubian countries.

Many projects were, and still are, conducted relative to the hydrology of the Danube River and its basin. They are carried out under the umbrella of the UNESCO IHP Danube or other permanent bodies such as the ICPDR, and usually supported by the governments of the Danubian countries. However, recently also the European Commission financially supports various projects whose results and gained insights may be helpful to hydrologists affiliated with the UNESCO IHP Danube.

Examples of projects to be introduced:

• INTERREG project Danube Floodplain
• INTERREG project Danube Sediment Management
• INTERREG project Danube Drought Monitor
• INTERREG project IDES “Improving water quality in the Danube River and its tributaries by integrative floodplain management based on Ecosystem Services”

Extremes are one of the main issues addressed in hydrology, while many techniques and methods have been developed in order to soundly support water managers in their efforts to protect the society and various assets from the risk of floods and droughts. From the field of physics, it is well known that with rising air temperature the atmosphere can contain more water, which may result in droughts and low flows on the one hand, whereas, after exceeding some threshold, in rainstorms and torrential rainfalls on the other hand. Therefore, the main focus of this section is to compare frequency and magnitude of the hydrological extremes within different time periods, to study the changes and to look at the future patterns expected in the Danube basin when exploiting climate models.

Although many hydrological activities are done in the Danube basin, and, nowadays, many of them are performed on the transboundary basis while being supported by the governments, it may happen that individual participants do not know properly about these activities and their results. Therefore, the aim of this section is to gather together the experts representing various intergovernmental bodies working in the field of hydrology and water management in the Danube basin from a long-term point of view, and focus on the activities which may be mutually beneficial. Also, the aim is to focus on not duplicating similar activities within individual bodies and, rather, to focus on effective future cooperation between UNESCO IHP Danube and the other bodies.

• Partner statements and panel discussion with e.g. UNESCO, WMO, GWP CEE, ICPDR, DC, Sava Commission, IAD, FRIEND-Water Europe, ERB