SIDE EVENT ON “FLOOD PROTECTION AND WATER MANAGEMENT RELATED ISSUES” SUCCESSFULLY ORGANIZED
The side event on “Flood Protection and Water Management Related Issues” was successfully organized
In the frame of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) the Priority area 4 (Water quality) and 5 (Environmental risk) hold a Side Event on “Flood protection and water management related issues in the Danube Region to share experiences, best practice and new initiations” under the patronage of the XXXV. Annual Conference of the Hungarian Hydrological Society. As a matter of curiosity it has to be mentioned that the side-event was the first international event in the history of the Annual Conferences of the Hungarian Hydrological Society.
The event was organized in Mosonmagyaróvár, on 5 July 2017 in joint cooperation of two EUSDR priority areas, the priority area on water quality (PA4) and priority area on environmental risks (PA5). The event had two main sessions:
- EUSDR PA5 – Managing environmental risks in the Danube River Basin
- EUSDR PA4 – Towards reaching good Status of Waters in the Danube River Basin
All together 47 participants visited the event during the day. Since the conference had its special feature, that participants can migrate in between the different sessions of the conference generally 25-35 experts were listening the different presentations of the side event.
The final agenda of the event can be downloaded from here
Mr Tamás Gampel General Secretary of the Hungarian Hydrological Society Water Management Department opened the meeting. Following Mr Gampel opening words Mr Károly Gombás on behalf of EUSDR PA5 and Mrs Diana Heilmann on behalf of EUSDR PA4 welcomed the participants and introduced in brief the main objectives of the event.
The aim of the side event was to share the experiences of international flood protection and water management in the Danube River Basin according to present good practices, new techniques and technologies by international and national experts, as well as to introduce the running, new or under preparation Cross-Border or Transnational Co-operation Programmes/Projects that draw attention to the possibilities of the joint flood protection and water management problems and to the current international trends.
The PA4 session “Towards reaching good Status of Waters in the Danube River Basin” was focusing on information sharing between projects of Danube Transnational Programme Thematic Pole on Water Management. The four related projects (CAMARO-D, DANUBESEDIMENT, DriDanube and JOINTISZA) presentations were also focusing on the linkage to EUSDR activities and synergies between the projects. As an additional ‘newcomer’ the FrameWat project (Interreg Central Europe) was also presented.
As an important block of the PA4 session, future strategic topics have also been discussed.
The presentations of the EUSDR PA4 session on ‘Towards reaching good Status of Waters in the Danube River Basin’ can be downloaded from here:
Plenary
The EU Strategy for the Danube Region and the Hungarian Presidency in 2017 – Mr Károly Gombás, EUSDR PA5 HU coordinator, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Hungary
Danube Transnational Programme-supporting joint efforts of transnational water management and flood protection in the Danube Region – Mr Gusztáv Csomor, Project Officer, Joint Secretariat of the Danube Transnational Programme
EUSDR PA4 session –Towards reaching good status of waters in the DRB
introduction to the EUSDR PA4 activities and projects– Mrs Diana Heilmann, EUSDR PA4 advisor
CAMARO-D, a Danube basin approach of land use management– Mr Siegel Hubert, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, Director
Restoration to the EUSDR PA4 activities and projects – Mr Péter Bakonyi, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, external expert
Drought risk in the Danube Region-DriDanube– Mr Sándor Szalai, Szent István University, Associated professor
Focusing on Tisza sub-Basin: towards the development of the update of the interated Tisza River Basin Management Plan (JOINTISZA)– Mr György Rátfai/Mrs Melinda Váci,Tisza Office, International relation coordinators
FramWat-to strengthen the regional common framework for floods, droughts and pollution mitigation by increasing the buffer capacity of the landscape– Mr János Fehér, GWP CEE, DRS Task Force Leader / Prof. Tomasz OkruszkoWarsaw University of Life Sciences, FramWat project manager
Outlook to the future – strategic topics
Importance-of good ecological status for the successful revival of Danube sturgeon– Mrs Cristina Sandu, Institute of Biology, Romanian Academy, Senior Researcher
Solotvyno possible solutions for risk mitigation in line with EUCPT Advisory mission findings – Mr László Perger, University of Miskolc, Honorary Associate Professor
Pollution controll in the Danube River Basin-challenges and future activities– Mr Adam Kovacs, International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River, Expert on Pollution Control
Acknowledgement
Many people contributed to the successful organization of the event, in particular:
The EUSDR PA5 and EUSDR PA4 Hungarian Teams, the colleagues of the Hungarian Hydrological Society and colleagues of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Secretariat of EUSDR Ministerial Commissioner.
Special thanks has to be expressed to the presenters of the event and for their valuable presentations.
Funding Programme
- The organization of EUSDR PA5 session was supported by the project: DTP-PAC1-PA5, Project Acronym – PA 05 Environmental Risks
- The organization of EUSDR PA4 session was supported by the project DTP-PAC1-PA4, Project Acronym – PA 04 Water Quality
