Hidrológiai Közlöny 1964 (44. évfolyam)

10. szám - Dégen Imre: A Nemzetközi Hidrológiai Decennium és Magyarország

Lászlóffy W.: A Nemzetközi Hidrológiai Decennium Hidrológiai Közlöny 1964. 10. sz. 431 THE INTERNATIONAL HYDROLOGICAL DECADE AND HUNGARY by I. DÉGEN Head of the Hungárián National Water Authority Chairman of the Hungárián National Committee, UNESCO International Hydrological Decade By the time these lines appear the General Assembly of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganizatiOn will have passed a resolution in the matter of the International Hydrological Decade commencing in January, 1965. The overall objective of an international programme in the field of hydrology is to accelerate the study of water resources and the régimén of waters with a view to their rational management in the interest of mankind, to make known the need for hydrological research and education in all countries and to improve their ability to evaluate their resources and use them to the best advantage. Thus, this is no factitious matter or theoretical cogitation, but the creation of the scientific bases of a rational water resources development to be achieved by international collaboration in the interest of man's future. Water resources management, as an activity aiming at the purposeful regulation of the interrelation between water and society, considers as its main objective the economically and technically feasible optimum compensation of the discrepancies existing between the water demand of society and the natural hydrological conditions within a given area. This area, however, cannot be confined to individual countries, since water does not observe political frontiers. The region even extends with increasing frequency over the boundaries of a river basin, for technical progress enables the execution of large-scale water diversion projects, and owing to the growing value of water, formerly undreamt solutions pro ved to become economical. If the future of the rapidly proliferating mankind is thought of, the space in question cannot be limited even to individual continents, sirice the hydrological cycle being the function of the atmospheric conditions of the entire globe and of the distribution of continents and oceans respectively, the continously renewing water resources of the Earth are a common commodity of humanity. Hungary welcomes the ten-year hydrological programme initiated by the UNESCO since both her physico-geographical situation and her own experiences have proved alike that a purposeful water resources management can only be successfully conducted by extending the same to hydrologically interconnected areas and by the joint consideration of natural phenomena and social development. Therefore, the hydrological research work carried out in harmony with the countries situated within the common drainage basin is certainly one of the fundamental conditions of developing water resources for optimum utilization and for the benefit of society. It is for this reason that Hungary is very much in favour of joining forces in the hydrological research work extending to the totál area of the drainage basins, the physico-geographical and economic regions and even to the entire globe. Owing to the centuries-old bittér struggle of our country, situated at the lowest part of the Carpathian Basin, fought equally for and against water it follows that the past of the science of hydrology is great in Hungary. The Hungárián Hydrographic Service, one of the oldest of the world's similar services will enter into its 80 year of activity next year, ín the opening year of the Decade. The Hungárián Hydrological Society, uniting hydraulic engineers, geologists, water chemists, limnologists, balneologists, hydrometeorologists for common scientific work, is looking back to an existence of almost five decades. The above-mentioned two circumstances may account for the lively scientific activity of the Hungárián hydrologists, whose results, becoming especially manifest through the congresses of the International Association of Scientific Hydrology, become increasingly known even on -a worldwide scale. The advanced state of hydrology in Hungary not only enables but alsó obliges us to jóin in the execution of the farreaching international programme by our many-sided work. Hungárián hydrologists are deeply conscious of the significance of the matter and will endeavour to conribute to the success of the noble initiation for the benefit of humanity, to the best of their ability. * The Hidrológiai Közlöny (Hydrological Journal), opening a standing column for the matters of the International Hydrological Decade informs in its present issue the Hungárián professional public, in the three consecutive articles, on the significance and programme of the Decade and on the preparations made hitherto.