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The Danube is the second-longest river in Europe. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for 2,850 km through much of Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest into the Black Sea. Its drainage basin is 817 000 km² and the river and its tributaries drain (to different extent) all Visegrad countries.
Damages caused by drought are growing together with the frequency and drought intensity. Therefore, the DriDanube project tackled drought at basin level, to shift from recovery to protection, i.e. from crisis management to risk management.
More about this approach
Project established a new drought monitoring tool DroughtWatch to serve for surveillance, early warning and emergency response. Early detection of drought impacts help the national authorities to forecast and respond during drought development faster and with higher precision. In practice it also means that if farmers can see immediate effects of drought and have relevant forecasts, they can take appropriate measures to reduce the impacts (e.g. more efficient use of water for irrigation). Moreover, using the information offered by this tool and the integrated drought management approach, governments may take necessary steps before disasters bring irreversible losses and invest into prevention.
National Hydro-meteorological Services and Emergency response authorities from the participating countries are already testing use of the project tools. The network of on-field reporters (currently over 1,000 in the region), who weekly report on drought impacts and contribute the system data and also benefit from the tools and relevant forecasts.
More information about the project:
https://www.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/dridanube
