Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2017 (97. évfolyam)
2017 / 3. szám - MANAGING WATER QUALITY (ONGOING PROJECTS AND FUTURE CHALLENGES) - Sušnik, Andreja - Gregorič, Gregor - Szalai Sándor - Bokal, Sabina: Towards efficient and operative drought management in the Danube region. The DriDanube project - Drought risk in the Danube Region
50 Hidrológiai Közlöny (Hungarian Journal of Hydrology) 2017. 97. évf. 3. sz. Towards efficient and operative drought management in the Danube region. The DriDanube project - Drought risk in the Danube Region Andreja Susnik*, Gregor Gregoric*, Sándor Szalai**, Sabina Bokái*** ’Slovenian Environmental Agency, Agrometeorological Department, Vojkova cesta lb, 1000 Ljubljana,Slovenia (E-mail: andreja. susnik@gov. si), ** Szent István University, Water Management Department, Pater K. utca 1., 2100 Gödöllő, Hungary *** Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe, Jeseniova 17, 833 15 Bratislava, Slovakia (e-mail: sabina.bokal@gwpcee.org ) Abstract Water scarcity and droughts hit the Danube region frequently and have a large impact on the economy and the welfare of people. Despite the damages in the past decades, drought is still not considered an issue of high priority, and people are not aware of its impacts. Therefore, DriDanube aims to increase the capacity of the Danube region for drought emergency response and enhance preparedness for drought management by introducing newly developed monitoring and risk assessment tools. One of the main products of the project will be a Drought User Service, which will make more accurate and efficient drought monitoring and early warning possible. The service will integrate all available data, including a large volume of the most recent remote'sensing products, using modem web services and “Big Data” management techniques. Apart from early warning, a risk analysis is required to mitigate the effects of drought. Following a transnational approach, DriDanube will harmonize the currently heterogeneous methodologies for risk and impact assessments, based on existing achievements in participating countries and on EU guidelines in the framework of the Civil Protection Mechanism. Users’ capacities at different level in the management cycle (monitoring-impact assessment-response- recovery-preparedness) will be strengthened through sharing experiences and project learning interactions. The main result expected from DriDanube is a strategy to improve drought emergency response (tested on pilot actions) and a better cooperation among operational services and decision-making authorities in the Danube Region. Keywords Drought, drought management, environmental risk, remote sensing, emergency responses INTRODUCTION The Danube catchment area is characterized by high climate variability, especially with regard to the precipitation. The neighbouring region is the Mediterranean region, where climate model projections unanimously show strong summer precipitation decrease. Observations highlight the growing frequency and severity of drought events, especially in the middle and lower part of the Danube region. The growing number of heat waves and the temperature increase in summer, the most warming season, cause more frequent summer droughts. High precipitation variability can cause droughts even during wintertime, in spite of the generally increasing precipitation in this season. Increasing drought damages have drawn attention to this disaster. That was the reason why the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) jointly established the Drought management Centre for South-Eastern Europe (DMCSEE), operating in the framework of the Slovenian Environmental Agency (ARSO), the organisation leading this project with a lot of experience in managing national and international projects. BACKGROUND The precursor of the DriDanube project was the Drought Management Centre for South-Eastern Europe project in the framework of SEE Transnational Cooperation Programme (2009-2012). The project objectives were the following: • to prepare regional drought monitoring, analysis and early warning products; • to assess regional vulnerability to drought impacts; • to promote and strengthen the capacity for drought preparedness, monitoring and management (training events, national seminars); • to set up a Drought Management Centre for South- Eastern Europe; • to exchange knowledge, experience and best practices on drought issues (SEE network); • to enhance the implementation of EU policies in the context of drought preparedness, monitoring and management, particularly in working out national drought strategies; • to raise awareness among decision makers, relevant stakeholders and end users about the importance of effective drought preparedness, monitoring and management. In the framework of the DMCSEE TCP project, Monthly Bulletins were issued ( http://www.dmcsee . org/en/drought_bulletin/). The leading organisation of the DMCSEE project was ARSO, and the project partnership was built on the initiative of national authorities responsible for the management of natural resources in the participating countries. The partnership consisted of national meteorological and hydrological institutions, which provided relevant data for regional drought monitoring and risk assessment, as well as universities and research institutes from the field of agricultural and soil science, which provided know-how on risk assessment and good practices. More about the DMCSEE SEE TCP project can be found on the homepage of the DMCSEE centre: http://www.dmcsee.org/en/home/ When the DMCSEE project finished, Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe (GWP CEE) initiated the Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP CEE) within the framework of the joint, global WMO/ GWP Integrated Drought Management Programme. The aim of this programme is “to support stakeholders at all levels by providing them with policy and
