The document summarizes cooperation on the Danube River basin across 19 countries and over 800,000 square kilometers. It discusses the establishment of organizations like the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River to coordinate management, implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, and progress toward goals of reducing water pollution and improving habitat. Key challenges include upgrading wastewater infrastructure, reducing nutrient loads from agricultural and industrial sources, and addressing hydrological alterations from dams and flood control.
GEF Danube-Black Sea Strategic Partnership for Nutrient Reduction
Rio danubio europa-wolfgangstaltzer
1. Danube River – the European Experience: Inputs from the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River Wolfgang Stalzer ICPDR Vienna (Austria) II International Seminar on Revitalization of Rivers Belo Horizonte – Minas Gerais – Brazil
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3. Longitudinal Profile of Danube and countries contributions to the cumulative discharge (%); Large differences in water availibility
16. Navigation Commission Die Donau – Tourism Commission REC Observers to the ICPDR GWP CEE UNESCO - IHP Black Sea Commission VGB Power Tech
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19. ICPDR – Organisation Structure Conference of the Parties International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River Strategic Expert Group Secre- tariat River Basin Management Pressures and Measures Monitoring and Assessment ad hoc Information Management and GIS ad hoc Public Participation Flood Protection Standing Working Group Expert Groups
20. Coordination Mechanism IT CH PL MK AL DE AT CZ UA MD HU SI SE BG RO SK HR BA ICPDR Cooperation Bilateral agreements Cooperation Cooperation at sub-basin level: e.g. Sava, Tisza
50. Reconnection of Side Arms Higher, stabilized water level Restoration of river banks construction of in-flows Construction of out-flows Reconstruction of traverses, if necessary replacement by bridges
59. Awareness Raising, Education, and Consultation Teacher’s handbook Interactive CD-ROM, working sheets, poster, family cards National languages and English www.danubebox.org Danube Box
The Convention established the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River which acts as a forum for cooperation and dialogue on water related issues and environmental issues dealing with water. Since 2000 the ICPDR is the coordinating body for implementing the EU WFD.
All countries of the Danube with territory greater than 2,000km 2 are cooperating in the frame of the ICPDR
In addition there are at present 14 observers who assist and contribute to the work.
The ICPDR plays a coordinating role in ensuring that a river basin management plan for the entire basin is prepared.
Since completion of the Analysis Report (or characterization report) the countries of the Danube have taken the next step and developed an integrated monitoring system to meet the requirements of WFD. This monitoring report – the next important milestone – was submitted to the Commission on Monday of this week.
Happily we have completed the important first step in the process in March 2005. The Danube Analysis report involving inputs from all the countries was submitted to the EU and was submitted with national reports from member states.
The risk of failure to reach the environmental objectives is the ultimate step in the pressure and impact analysis . The WFD requests from the Member States to carry out an assessment of the likelihood that water bodies will fail to meet the environmental quality objectives by 2015. The objectives include both the overall objective to achieve good status by 2015, and possibly additional specific objectives that apply to protected areas as defined from other legislation. The objectives may also depend on the current status of the water body, since Member States must, in general, prevent any deterioration in the status. Failure to achieve the objectives on surface waters may be the result from a very wide range of pressures, including point source discharges, diffuse source discharges, water abstractions, water flow regulation and morphological alterations. These and any other pressures that could affect the status of aquatic ecosystems must be considered in the analysis. The risk assessment is therefore based on information collected in the pressure and impact analysis and is highly aggregated . Explain graph: … The upper Danube, where chains of hydropower plants exist, is mainly impacted by hydromorphological alterations. Many of the water bodies in the upper Danube have also been provisionally identified as "heavily modified water bodies". The Middle Danube is classified as “possibly at risk” due to hazardous substances. The Danube section shared by Slovakia and Hungary is classified in part as “at risk” and in part as “possibly at risk” due to hydromorphological alterations. The part of the Danube shared by Croatia, and Serbia and Montenegro is “possibly at risk” in all categories since not enough data is available for a sure assessment. The lower Danube is “at risk” due to hazardous substances, hydromorphological alterations, and “possibly at risk” due to organic pollution. In total, about 50 % of the Danube is at risk or possibly at risk due to organic pollution, about 50 % due to nutrient pollution and around 70 % due to hazardous substances. With regard to hydromorphological alterations more than 80 % of the Danube is at risk or possibly at risk. As for the tributaries assessments are only available for 80 % of the basin. The available data shows that over 50 % are at risk of failing to meet the environmental objectives for one or for several reasons. Explanatory notes : These numbers are rather high, but will be reduced as more knowledge of the actual state of the water becomes available. For one: „possibly at risk“ - given in cases where information is insufficient to make a clear assessment Secondly, further developments and additional specific regulations of the WFD need to be taken into account (e.g. the designation of HMWB or derogations where lower environmental objectives need to identified).
River bank restoration is the removal of riprap (stone protection, stone armouring) from the riverbank. The new river banks were the result of only one flood event during summer of 2009. The water level of the flood was middle water plus 1,15 m.
A basin-wide Action Programme has been adopted and currently 17 flood action plans have been prepared
There is a need for further more intensive dialogue between environment interests and Energy/Hydropower/Agriculture. Climate change also poses a threat to the region. Strengthened cooperation in the sub-basins of the Danube is needed.
Thank you for your attention.
In this table you can see the proposed investments in 1999 that were committed to and the percentage of pollution reduction they would contribute to.