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
52 service for targeted users (national and regional meteorological and emergency response authorities). It will continue the work on existing collaborative platforms developed within the EuroGEOSS and DMCSEE projects and implemented in the European Drought Observatory and DMCSEE. It will be developed and operated on a cloud platform, providing access to large volumes of satellite data sets with high spatial resolution and precision and ensuring the seamless transfer of service prototypes into operations. The necessary satellite data sets will be collected and made available for the platform. The user interface will enable access for individuals with different skill levels, ranging from basic to expert users. Finally, a training of trainers will be organized within the project partnership to gain competence in organising national trainings. WP4: Drought impact assessment. Responsible partner: CzechGlobe. In the case of drought, the impact usually cannot be easily related to the hazard intensity as they also depend on the sensitivity of the impacted ecosystem or sector. This WP focuses on the development methods that will allow a quick and efficient assessment of drought impacts during an ongoing drought episode. It will be combined with a retrospective analysis of the connections between past drought intensities and reported impacts. In order to improve the management of drought risks and drought events, it is critical to estimate not only drought intensity but also expected impact. Therefore forecasting of impacts will be an essential part of WP4 activities. The project will integrate and build a network of impact reporters. The WP4 will also coordinate data collection on drought impact for the whole project and will lead research activities in the field of impact forecasting. Each partner will be responsible for engaging and training the system users in their countries, who will in turn provide near-real-time impact assessment via the project User Service. WP5: Drought risk assessment. Responsible partner: Hungarian Meteorological Service. WP5 will use the main results and outcomes of the DMCSEE, ORIENTGATE and CARPATCLIM and its enlargement projects. In the DMCSEE project, drought indices were calculated, drought periods were collected on the basis of historical records and drought vulnerability was examined. The SEERISK project produced Guidelines with a demonstration of drought risk assessment in a single municipality. This methodology will be updated and applied in the participating countries. These results will be the input for drought risk assessment. In the CARPATCLIM project, a daily gridded meteorological database was established, which can be the basis for drought risk calculation in this project. Drought risk assessment will be based on existing achievements in participating countries (collected in a review) and on agreed methodology (based on EU guidelines in the framework of the Civil Protection Mechanism). According to the EU guidelines, drought risk can be expressed as the product of hazard impact and the probability of occurrence. Values of hazard impact will be obtained from different target groups (case studies) and probability values, based on meteorological variables, will be estimated. A manual on common risk assessment methodology will support the implementation of the methodology; reports on regional and national risk assessments (including risk matrices and maps) will be prepared and included in the User Service (WP3). The result of the WP will provide input for WP6. Capacity building activities will be held for different stakeholders, end users and scientific communities. WP6: Drought response. Responsible partner: ARSO. The main purpose of this WP is to capitalize from previous WPs and to prepare a strategy to improve the drought management cycle for each participating country. One of the starting points is the output of the Integrated Drought Management Plan CEE project: the Guidelines for preparation of drought management plans. Since there are numerous legislation mechanisms that regulate drought response and preparedness measures, the strategy to optimize the drought management cycle within countries should cover a broad set of regulations. The screening of drought-related regulations with focus on the structure of management procedures within the participating countries will be carried out. As soon as the prototype of Drought User Service with the methodology for near-real-time drought impact assessment is completed, pilot implementation will start in 4 countries. Pilot implementation of a decisionmaking model will be implemented in 2 countries (EU, non-EU). Two strategy implementation plans for improved cooperation and interoperability among emergency response authorities and stakeholders will be prepared as pilot implementation for two countries. The strategy to improve drought emergency response will be based on the current status of drought management, examples of previous drought episodes (including responses and mitigation measures) and the consideration of new available tools (outputs of WP3 and WP4). For competence building, ten national seminars will be organized for users on understanding drought information gained from the User Service. PROJECT RESULTS Based on the objectives above, the following outputs are expected: • Drought User service • Methodology for drought risk assessment • Methodology for drought impact assessment including forecasting • Pilot actions testing the Drought user service and both methodologies • Capacity building on national and regional level • Stakeholders’ engagement in the development of Dri Danube tools and their use in everyday work. CAPITAIZATION DriDanube project works in close co-operation with other DTP projects having similar topics using synergetic effect of their cooperation. These projects are the JOINTISZA, CAMARO-D and SEDIMENT projects. Link: http://www.interreg-danube.eu/relevant-documents/dtp- capitalisation-strategy/thematic-pole-4-waterways . Hidrológiai Közlöny (Hungarian Journal of Hydrology) 2017. 97. évf. 3. sz.
