Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2017 (97. évfolyam)
2017 / 3. szám - TRANSNATIONAL EFFORTS - Oroszi Viktor György - Tamás Enikő Anna - Tamás Beatrix: Flood management education in the Danube basin - needs and challenges
28 Hidrológiai Közlöny (Hungarian Journal of Hydrology) 2017. 97. évf. 3. sz. ing with the administration is needed. Engineering capacities needed in Serbia to implement development projects were also summarized (Table 2). Table 2. Required engineer capacity building in the field of water management in Serbia from 2015 (Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection 2015) Period Funding mill. €/y (average) Engineers (annual average) Planning and Construction Design Total Up to year 5 240 1 200 400 1 600 Years 6-10 480 1 500 1 000 2 500 After 11 years 550 1 500 1 700 3 200 An important step was made in Slovenia towards an improved education related to natural hazards by introducing a special elective primary school subject titled ’Protection against natural and other disasters’ for pupils between twelve and fourteen years old (Komac et al. 2013). A new postgraduate school was established by the Anton Melik Geographical Institute of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts focusing on natural hazard modelling and the University of Ljubljana participates in an ERASMUS MUNDUS international Flood Risk Management Master Programme which has been finished already by 200 students. ASummer School on Natural Disasters was also organized in Ljubljana in May-June 2017 preparing around 20 e-learning tools and video presentations with on-line access (EUSDR PA5 2017). University of Bucharest in cooperation with universities from Athens, Belgrade and Ljubljana in 2013- 2014 offered international courses in frame of the EDUCATE! project which had a 15 weeks Integrated Flood Management and a similar length Stormwater Management module. There is a historical past in flood management training in Hungary for a long time. At universities, flood protection topics are covered by the Civil Engineering degree programmes. The Budapest University of Technology has traditionally trained water management professionals, including flood protection in the curricula, since its establishment. The predecessors of the Faculty of Water Sciences of the National University of Public Service in Baja had always specialised in practical rather than theoretical training, its graduates forming the core of flood specialists of the country for decades. This institution was founded in 1962, when the National Water Management Authority initiated the establishment of a higher education institution on water management in Baja, with the specific task of training practical water management engineering staff for the Water Authorities. From the beginning, the education of flood management was always an important and integrate part of the training here, meaning that theoretical and practical courses on a compulsory basis are being taught for all students. However, the complex topics of flood management required a bigger effort, and in the 1990s the leadership of the training programme started the elaboration of a specialised flood engineering postgraduate course, which was first announced in 2000. To date, this is the only dedicated Flood management education in Hungary, which is now offered by the Faculty of Water Sciences of the National University of Public Service. Already 231 students - in substantial number experts of Hungarian water directorates - have enrolled and graduated at the Excess Water and Flood Management postgraduate programme since 2003 (Table 3). Over the past decade, there was a clear need for this type of postgraduate training in Hungary. At present, there are 54 students having altogether 400 hours of lectures and practical in the field of flood management engineering. Teaching staff consists of more than 50 professional academics and practical instructors. Table 3. Number of graduates at the Excess Water and Flood Management postgraduate programme of the Faculty of Water Sciences of the National University of Public Service in Hungary (Source: Szlávik, L. pers.comm.) Year Place of instruction Number of graduates 2003 Baja 30 2008 Nyíregyháza 43 2010 Nyíregyháza 47 2012 Baja 36 2015 Szolnok 43 2016 Baja 32 2018 (expected) Nyíregyháza 54 Total 285 Apart from graduate and postgraduate engineers, at secondary school level there are today altogether 9 schools which educate young water managers in Hungary, however, the number of trained experts in the field of flood management is still far too low, according to surveys conducted by the educating institutions. Hungarian government harmonized the disaster management related education, training and research by the Act 128 of 2011. Disaster management related vocational trainings are organized by the Hungarian Disaster Management Education Center under the supervision of the National Directorate General for Disaster Management (background institute of the Ministry of Interior). Disaster Management BA and MA degree programmes are coordinated by the Institute of Disaster Management at the National University of Public Service in Budapest. Neither vocational trainings, nor the curriculum of Disaster Management BA and MA degree programmes in Hungary contain any courses dedicated especially to flood management. However the bachelor programme incorporates civil protection, disaster prevention, relief operations, disaster recovery subjects, or catastrophe psychology and master students have ‘Meteorology and climatology’ and ‘Geography of Disasters’ courses. In 2016 all together 115 students were enrolled to Disaster management BA and 49 to MA programme (Felvi 2017). In 2005, during the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe almost a third (36 of 113) of the reporting countries claimed to have national efforts to teach disaster-related subjects or some form of disaster- related education in primary or secondary schools. From the Danube basin, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia were among them. Risk education themes are included in different school forms and are distributed in the curricula of several subjects, such as geography, biological sciences, physics, social sciences, history,
