Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2016 (96. évfolyam)
2016 / 3. szám - Fehér János: Foreword
5 Foreword on the occasbn' of'the" 2nd Budapest During its three day programme the BWS2 is going to discuss six main challenging topics about water resources and their management in global context, namely: i) How to provide safe and affordable drinking water?; ii) How to improve sanitation and hygiene?; iii) How to achieve increased water-use efficiency?; iv) How to do integrated water resources management?; v) How to improve water quality?; vi) How to manage water-related ecosystems better? Some months ago the Editorial Board of the Hungarian Journal of Hydrology decided to publish a special issue prior to the BWS2 with the intention to give overviews of the water resources management in Hungary in connection with the topics that BWS2 is going to discuss. The Editorial Board invited specialists from members of the Hungarian Hydrological Society who have long term professional experiences on the topics of BWS2 to prepare focus papers. In the 96 year long history of the Hungarian Journal of Hydrology papers in all previous issues were published in exclusively in Hungarian and only abstracts were provided in other language(s). This is the first time when the entire issue is in English. The authors were requested to write their topic specific paper to present in concise way a) the historical background of the professional field; b) what development happened in recent decades in that field; c) what is the current situation / status; and d) provide an outlook for the next few decades about the expected /feasible development trends. Six papers were prepared introducing and discussing i) Good Practices for Integrated Water Resources Management in EU and in Hungary; ii) Water supply in Hungary; iii) Sanitation in Hungary; iv) The power of irrigation; v) Water quality protection in Hungary - policy and status and vi) Water bodies in Hungary - an overview of their management and present state. In the regular issues of the Hungarian Journal of Hydrology, besides professional papers additional columns are included, such as the Köszöntő (Salutation) column where members of the Hungarian Hydrological Society with outstanding career are greeted at their high age anniversary or the Életút interjú (Biographical interview) column where the presidents or elected leaders of the Society as well as highly recognised professionals working in the water management sector or water sciences are interviewed or the Történelmi pillanatkép (Historical snapshot) column, which gives brief information about interesting historical events, decisions, personalities, facts, etc. In this special issue we provide — besides the issue specific papers - a brief snapshot also about the fact that scientifically based research about the water resources and ecological status of the Danube River and the watershed has been started more than 300 years ago and as one the main outcomes of that work was published in 1726. Besides the six topics discussed in this issue the Hungarian Journal of Hydrology plans to present, in the next year volume, review papers on other significant water management issues, such as — among others - flood protection in Hungary in the integrated water resources management; Experiences in connection with the design end control works of reservoirs built in the Tisza Valley for flood level control; Surface water detention in the Danube -Tisza sand plateau region of Hungary; Waste- water irrigation - a stepchild of our water management and how medicinal and bathing water resources are used and managed. Last but not least, I’d like to thank all authors of the papers for their work and the considerable amount of their private time they spent on finalising this issue. Without their voluntary contribution this issue would not have been published. I also greatly appreciate and thank for the support of Professor Emerita Mária Dulovics, Dr. Zsuzsanna Horváth, Dr. Veronika Major, Professor Emeritus István Ijjas, Hon. Professor Endre Juhász, Assoc. Professor Ferenc Szilágyi, Dr. József Gayer, Dr. Károly Konecsny and Mr Géza Csörnyei who reviewed the papers and advised the authors how to improve them. Dr. János Fehér Chief Editor of the Hungarian Journal of Hydrology
