OM 13 - 3.1 ROA FAP 2010 v2-1.pdf - ICPDR

Report on Achievements 

in Flood Protection in the 

Danube River Basin 

Document number: IC-159 

Version: 2010 

Date: 22-Nov-2010 

ICPDR / International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River / www.icpdr.org

Imprint 

Published by: 

ICPDR – International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River 

© ICPDR 2010 

Contact 

ICPDR Secretariat 

Vienna International Centre / D0412 

P.O. Box 500 / 1400 Vienna / Austria 

T: +43 (1) 26060-5738 / F: +43 (1) 26060-5895 

icpdr@unvienna.org / www.icpdr.org 


Table of content 

1 Introduction 4 

2 Development and Improvement of Flood Forecasting and Early Warning System 6 

2.1Danube EFAS 6 

2.2Report on Assessment of Flood Monitoring And Forecasting in the Danube River Basin 6 

3 Preparation of flood action plans in sub-basins 7 

4 Major achievements in flood risk management in Danube countries 7 

4.1Existing framework for transboundary cooperation 7 

4.2Major developments in flood risk management 9 

4.2.1Germany – Bavaria & Baden-Wuerttemberg 9 

4.2.2Austria 10 

4.2.3Czech Republic 12 

4.2.4Slovakia 18 

4.2.5Hungary 22 

4.2.6Slovenia 24 

4.2.7Croatia 26 

4.2.8Serbia 29 

4.2.9Bosnia and Herzegovina 31 

4.2.10Romania 35 

4.2.11Bulgaria 37 

4.2.12Ukraine 39 

5 Creating Forums for Exchange of Expert Knowledge 42 

5.1Document on Coordination aspects of EFD implementation in the Danube River Basin 42 

5.2Other information sources 43 

6 Recommendation for a common approach in assessment of flood-prone areas and evaluation of 

flood risk 43 

6.1Status review and report of flood mapping and flood risk evaluation in the sub-basins and 

countries of the Danube River Basin 43 

6.2Minimum recommendations for flood risk mapping in the Danube River Basin 44 

6.3FLOODRISK project 44 

7 Other activities 45 

7.1Danube 2006 floods report 45 

7.2Flood factsheet 2010 46 

8 Conclusions 47 


Report on Achievements in FP 4 

1 Introduction 

In response to the danger of flooding and in line with its Joint Action Programme, the ICPDR decided 

in 2000 to establish the long-term Action Programme for Sustainable Flood Prevention in the Danube 

River Basin. The whole process was accelerated after disastrous floods in 2002 and resulted in 

adoption of the Action Programme at the ICPDR Ministerial Meeting on 13 December 2004. 

This Action Programme is based on the sustainable flood protection programmes developed in the 

various Danube countries as well as on networking existing structures and using the future-oriented 

knowledge base accumulated through a wide range of activities over the past decade. The overall goal 

of the Action Programme is to achieve a long term and sustainable approach for managing the risks of 

floods to protect human life and property, while encouraging conservation and improvement of water 

related ecosystems. Given the area, the complexity and the internal differences in the Danube River 

Basin, the Action Programme represents an overall framework, which needs to be specified in further 

detail for sub-basins. The Action Programme is based on UN-ECE Guidelines on Sustainable Flood 

Prevention, EU Best Practices on Flood Prevention, Protection and Mitigation and on EU 

Communication on flood risk management, COM(2004)472. The major principles advocated are: (i) 

the shift from defensive action against hazards to management of the risk and living with floods (ii) 

the river basin approach taking into account the Water Framework Directive, (iii) joint action of 

government, municipalities and stakeholders towards flood risk management and awareness raising, 

(iv) reduction of flood risks via natural retention, structural flood protection and hazard reduction, and 

(v) solidarity. 

Targets of the Action Programme are set on a basin-wide and a sub-basin level taking into account the 

above-mentioned principles. There are four major basin-wide targets, which are currently under 

implementation: 

(i) Improvement of flood forecasting and early flood warning system 

Interlinking of the national and/or regional systems aims to improve the overall coordination 

and transboundary coherence of flood monitoring and forecasting systems. In parallel to 

interlinking of national systems a Danube Flood Alert System was developed by the EC JRC 

and was launched in December 2007. 

(ii) Support for the preparation of and coordination between sub-basin-wide flood action plans 

The ICPDR is a coordination platform for preparation of flood action plans for the river subbasins. 

Steps towards linking of flood risk management with the river basin management have 

been done in cooperation with the river basin managers in the Danube countries. 

(iii) Creating forums for exchange of expert knowledge 

Measures should be taken towards sharing of experience and coordinated development and 

promotion of best practices on flood risk management. Exchange of relevant information on 

flood protection, prevention and mitigation with the other international river commissions is 

foreseen. 

(iv) Recommendation for a common approach in assessment of flood-prone areas and evaluation of 

flood risk 

The overall approach of the EU Directive on the assessment and management of flood risks 

towards flood risk mapping is coherent with the basic principles described in the ICPDR Action 

Programme on Sustainable Flood Protection in the Danube River Basin. 



In September 2007 a Directive of the European parliament and of the Council on the assessment and 

management of flood risks was finally adopted by the European Council. The aim of the Directive is 

to reduce and manage the risks that floods pose to human health, the environment, cultural heritage 

and economic activity. The Directive requires Member States to first carry out a preliminary flood risk 

assessment by 2011 to identify areas at risk of flooding. For such areas they would then need to draw 

up flood risk maps by 2013 and establish flood risk management plans focused on prevention, 

protection and preparedness by 2015. The Directive applies to inland waters as well as all coastal 

waters across the whole territory of the EU. The Directive shall be carried out in coordination with the 

Water Framework Directive, notably by flood risk management plans and river basin management 

plans being coordinated, and through coordination of the public participation procedures in the 

preparation of these plans. All assessments, maps and plans prepared shall be made available to the 

public. Member States shall furthermore coordinate their flood risk management practices in shared 

river basins, including with third counties, and shall in solidarity not undertake measures that would 

increase the flood risk in neighbouring countries. Member States shall take into consideration long 

term developments, including climate change, as well as sustainable land use practices in the flood risk 

management cycle addressed in this Directive. 

The adoption of the EU Directive on the assessment and management of flood risks (EFD) has its 

impact also on the implementation of the ICPDR Action Programme on Sustainable Flood Protection 

in the Danube River Basin both in terms of technical content and the implementation time plan, given 

that the ICPDR Action Programme itself foresees incorporating the future developments of the EU 

flood policy. 

In 2009 the ICPDR published 17 sub-basin flood action plans covering the entire Danube catchment. 

This was a key milestone set in the ICPDR Action Programme for Sustainable Flood Prevention but 

also an important step in a harmonized implementation of the EFD in the Danube River Basin 

District. 

This Report provides the stakeholders and public with an overview of the achievements in 

implementation of the targets of the ICPDR Action Programme on Sustainable Flood Protection in the 

Danube River Basin with a particular attention given to the progress made in the sub-basins in 

implementation of the action plans as well as of the EU Directive on the assessment and management 

of flood risks. Report on Achievements in Flood Protection in the Danube River Basin is structured 

according to the four basin-wide targets of the ICPDR Flood Action Programme and it is a living 

document, which will be updated regularly with a view of demonstrating to the wide target audience 

the efforts made and the progress achieved in the Danube River Basin in the field of flood risk 

management. 



2 Development and Improvement of Flood Forecasting 

and Early Warning System 

2.1 Danube EFAS 

The European Flood Alert System (EFAS) is being developed at the EC Joint Research Centre (JRC) 

with support of the national meteorological services and national hydrological services (NHS). As to 

date, around 25 operational authorities across Europe, all together responsible for more than 85% of 

the major trans-national river basins, are receiving EFAS information as early flood warning reports 

for floods in the next 3-10 days. As for the Danube countries EFAS Memoranda of Understanding 

(MoU) have been signed with DE, AT, CZ, SK, HU, SI, RS, RO, BG and MD. Recently HR joined as 

well. Negotiations on membership are ongoing with UA and BA. EFAS-Danube members have 24/7 

access to a protected web-server where the twice-daily EFAS forecasts can be examined and viewed 

(http://efas-is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/efas-forecasting.html ). 

In 2010, using further data received from several institutes within the Danube, the calibration of the 

5km grid hydrological model version has been redone. Furthermore, EFAS uses now also ensemble 

weather forecasts from COSMO-LEPS, which enables higher-resolution forecasts until 5 days before a 

flood event, more focussed towards flash flood forecasting. Also, using near-realtime river discharge 

data received from Danube water authorities, corrected flood forecasts are currently provided (called 

realtime hydrographs on EFAS website). At present, these realtime hydrographs are available for 

selected stations in the Upper Danube in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Using the 

realtime discharge data, also an overview is made where actual flooding is in the Danube as well as 

Europe: http://floods.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ongoing-floods.html 

Further improvements under development are the use of realtime satellite snow cover data, biascorrection 

of rainfall forecasts, use of satellite derived rainfall data, and the use of satellite derived soil 

moisture data. 

Discussions for the transfer of EFAS to an operational entity are in a final stage with DG ECHO 

(Humanitarian Aid) and DG ENTR (Enterprise) in Brussels. EFAS is expected to go into full 

operation in Autumn 2011. 

2.2 Report on Assessment of Flood Monitoring And Forecasting in the Danube River Basin 

The national flood forecasting and warning systems in the Danube River Basin differ in the frequency, 

methods and techniques used for monitoring and also in data collection and processing. In some 

countries the outdated and advanced methodologies are running in parallel. Therefore the ICPDR 

Action Programme on Sustainable Flood Protection in the Danube River Basin aims to develop the 

methodology and tools of data collection, processing, forecasting and dissemination where necessary 

and also to interlink the regional and national agencies on sub-basin and basin level to facilitate and 

promote the exchange of source data and forecasting and warning in transboundary sub-basins. 

The first step in this activity was preparation of the Report on Assessment of Flood Monitoring And 

Forecasting in the Danube river basin, which was finalized in 2009. The report reviews: 

• Climatic and hydrological conditions in the DRB 

• Flood monitoring system 

o 

o 

Description of the meteorological network 

Description of the hydrological monitoring network 

• Development of the flood information service for the Danube river basin 



• The role of the European Flood Alert System 

3 Preparation of flood action plans in sub-basins 

In 2009 the ICPDR published 17 sub-basin flood action plans, based on 45 national planning 

documents, and covering the entire Basin. These action plans provide the first ever comprehensive 

overview of actions to reduce flood risk in the Danube Basin. In drawing up the plans, measures were 

first elaborated at the national level in each of the 13 ICPDR states. Joint discussions between 

countries sharing particular sub-basins then took place to create a harmonized plan for the entire area 

of each sub-basin. 

The finalised action plans review the current situation and set targets and respective measures for 

reducing adverse impacts and the likelihood of floods, increasing awareness and level of preparedness 

and improving flood forecasting. The targets and measures are based on the regulation of land use and 

spatial planning; increase of retention and detention capacities; technical flood defences; preventive 

actions (e.g. flood forecasting and flood warning systems); capacity building; awareness and 

preparedness raising and prevention and mitigation of water pollution due to floods. The sub-basin 

action plans detail comprehensive information on hundreds of concrete actions to reduce flooding 

throughout the region, including re-naturalisation of water bodies, creation of flood polders, upgrading 

of dykes and improvement of alarm and forecasting systems. As a follow up to the action plans, the 

development of flood hazard and flood risk maps is crucial. Decisions related to the implementation of 

the action plans are a task and responsibility of the individual countries, according to their national 

legislation and bilateral and multilateral agreements. 

4 Major achievements in flood risk management in 

Danube countries 

This chapter provides an overview of the developments in flood risk management on the national 

level. 

4.1 Existing framework for transboundary cooperation 

Bilateral discussions between Germany and Austria are held in a working group under the standing 

water commission according to the “Regensburger Vertrag” (Regensburg Treaty). The working group 

agreed to establish the flood action plans for the sub-basins in temporal, organizational and 

contentwise coordination with the EU flood directive. 

In the Czech Republic bilateral cooperation framework with Slovakia is based on Treaty between the 

Government of the Czech Republic and the Government of the Slovak Republic on cooperation on 

transboundary watercourses from the year 1999. Cooperation with Austria is based on treaty between 

Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Austrian Republic on regulation of water management issues 

related to border waters from the year 1967. 



There is an ongoing cooperation of experts involved in the Bilateral commissions on the cooperation 

on the border waters in Slovakia. A cooperation framework is established with the Czech Republic, 

Austria, Hungary, Ukraine and Poland. 

Cooperation framework in Hungary was established in the Pannonian Central Danube sub-basin in the 

frame of HU-AT, HU-SK, HU-HR and HU-RS bilateral commissions and in the Drava-Mura subbasin 

in the frame of HU-AT, HU-SI, HU-HR bilateral commissions. In the Tisza River Basin there 

is a developing cooperation in the frame of the ICPDR Tisza Working Group, also utilising the 

outcomes of the Tisza Forum. 

There is an intensive cooperation in the frame of bilateral commissions in place in Slovenia. These 

include cooperation on Mura and Drava with Austria, cooperation with Croatia on Drava, Mura and 

Sotla-Sava-Kolpa) and the work of bilateral Commission with Hungary. 

Transboundary flood protection issues in Croatia are dealt with by the respective sub commissions 

established under the umbrella of the bilateral commissions with Slovenia, Hungary and Bosnia and 

Herzegovina. Serbia has ongoing bilateral cooperation with Romania and Hungary based on the 

existing bilateral agreements, covering the Danube, the Tisa and the Banat regions. 

The Permanent Expert Group for Flood Protection (PEG FP) has been established within the 

International Sava River Basin Commission (ISRBC), and all Sava countries (Croatia, Slovenia, 

Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) participate in its work. This group is now preparing Protocol on 

Flood Protection, which will be a ground for future cooperation in flood risk management in the Sava 

River basin. 

Since its independence in 1991 Ukraine has signed agreements on water management issues related to 

transboundary watercourses with Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova. 

DE AT CZ SK HU SI HR BA RS BG RO MD UA 

DE x x 

AT x x x x x 

CZ x x x 

SK x x x x 

HU x x x x x x x 

SI x x x 

HR x x x 

BA 

x 

RS x x 

BG 

x 

RO x x x x x 

MD x x 

UA x x x x 

Table 1: The existing bilateral agreements creating a framework for transboundary cooperation 



4.2 Major developments in flood risk management 

4.2.1 Germany – Bavaria & Baden-Wuerttemberg 

Improvements in flood forecasting and warning 

Both in Baden-Wuerttemberg ( www.hvz.baden-wuerttemberg.de/ ) and in Bavaria 

(www.hnd.bayern.de/ ) flood early warning systems and flood forecast models are in use for all larger 

river catchment areas. 

Structural flood protection projects 

In Baden-Wuerttemberg and in Bavaria number of projects focussed on building new flood protection 

structures as well as on the improvement of existing flood protection facilities. Based on the Flood 

protection action programme 2020 in Bavaria every year approximately 115 million € are invested in 

flood protection (in the years 2006 - 2008 the annual budget stretched up to 150 million €). 

Approximately 75% of that budget is invested in the Danube catchment area. As a consequence, in 

the Danube catchment area in Bavaria, more than 200 000 additional inhabitants were protected 

sufficiently against floods during 2001-2005. In 2007 the polder “Weidachwiesen” at the river Iller 

was completed as the first controlled flood polder in Bavaria (retention volume approximately 6,3 

millions m 3 ). In addition, the reactivation of natural retention areas was forced. In the Bavarian part of 

the Danube catchment area between 2001 and at the end of 2005 approximately 16 km of dykes were 

set back and approximately 5 million m 3 retention volume were re-activated. 

Capacity building, preparedness & flood mitigation 

Baden-Wuerttemberg: in conjunction with the development of the flood action plan for the Danube in 

Baden-Wuerttemberg. Bavaria: relevant improvement after floods 2005. At the river Mangfall a new 

hydraulic model for simulating the impacts of breeched levees during a flood event was established. 

Progress in implementation of EFD 

On the 1 st of March 2010, the new Federal Water Management Act came into effect. On the same day, 

the State of Bavaria enacted the Bavarian Water Act. Therefore all necessary legal steps for the 

implementation of the EFD have been made. 



By May, 26 th 2010, the Competent Authorities and the Units of Management had to be reported to the 

European Commission. Competent Authorities are the Ministry of the Environment, Nature 

Conservation and Transport in Baden-Wurttemberg and the State Ministry for the Environment and 

Public Health in Bavaria. Due to the commitment of the Danube Declaration (no. 32), adopted at the 

IPCDR Ministerial Meeting 2010, the same sub-basins were reported as Units of Management to EC 

which defined for the Flood Action Plans in the ICPDR Action Programme for Sustainable Flood 

Protection. That means that the Upper Danube and the Inn sub-basins are regarded as separate Units of 

Management. 

The next step will be the preparation of Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) for the areas of 

potential significant flood risk (APSFR). In Bavaria, this will be finished by the end of 2010, making 

use of Art. 13 of the EFD. In Baden-Württemberg the same activity will be finished by the end of 

2011. The applied method is based on an intersection of stream courses and spatial planning data. 

Based on the results of the PFRA, flood hazard maps and flood risk maps will be designed up to 

December 22 nd 2013. These maps are the source for the Flood Risk Management Plans which have to 

be established up to 2015. All steps have to be coordinated between the neighbours in a sub-basin. For 

this reason, Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria are in close contact to ensure a common process. 

4.2.2 Austria 


Austria has a federal structure with nine provincial states. According to this structure the responsibility 

for the flood forecasting was assigned to the local Hydrological Services. 

The Hydrological Service in Austria operates a modern hydrometrical network for the quantification 

of the water cycle in Austria. The network for monitoring water quantity consists of about 600 

discharge measuring points, 1000 precipitation measuring points (air temperature) and 3000 

groundwater measuring points. All data on the water cycle in Austria are collected, prepared and 

disseminated by this organisation. 

no flood- forcast available 

be planned 

in test operation 

in operation 

forecasting measures in Austria 

Overview of flood – 

The 2002 and 2005 flood events triggered activities regarding flood forecast and started any new 

activities related to flood forecasting in Austria. A new generation of flood - forecast models 



(conceptual water-balance rainfall-runoff models combined with flood routing models) was developed 

after this flooding. The discharge forecast results for the river Danube in Austria are published on the 

internet. The precipitation forecasts come exclusively from the Meteorological Service in Austria – 

ZAMG (http://www.zamg.ac.at). 

Discharge forecasting gauges on the river 

Danube in Lower Austria (http://www.noel.gv.at) 

Links for further information: 

1. http://www.noel.gv.at/Externeseiten/wasserstand/htm/wndcms.htm (discharge-forecast 

information for the Danube and for other gauges in the Danube river basin in Lower Austria) 

2. http://gis.lebensministerium.at/ehyd (historical hydrographical data, available for download) 

3. http://pegel-aktuell.lfrz.at/ (Overview about the online discharge and water level gauges in 

Austria) 


In Austria the “Flood programme 2016” was adopted. Main goals are to improve the existing or to 

build new flood protection measures (structural as well as non-structural) and to accelerate the making 

of hazards maps. Based on the programme Austria invests approximately about 400 million € per year 

in flood protection measures (financed by the Federal State, the Provinces and the communities with 

an average percentage of 50 : 35 : 15). 

There is a clear hierarchy in the implementation of flood protection measures (laid down in the 

Austrian water act and the hydraulic engineering assistance act) as followed: 

o Non-structural measures have priority over structural measures 

o Measures in the catchment area have priority over measures at the main channel 

o Retention measures have priority over linear structural measures 

o (Near) natural methods of building have priority over methods that are less so 

o Area used for agriculture and forestry are not be specifically protected 



o 

Avoidance of those measures that would increase erosion and the discharge of drain water 


To increase preparedness and awareness the Ministry published a series of brochures (e.g. for house 

owners) and updated the public appearance on the internet constantly. 

An Austria-wide internet platform for natural hazards with the focus on floods has been developed, 

(www.hochwasserrisiko.at), in which all inundation areas (flood affected areas) and the hazard maps 

(if available) are shown. 


The first intended step for the implementation of the Flood Directive, the Preliminary Floodrisk 

Assessment (PFRA), will be finalized in mid 2011 and presented to the public probably in October 

2011. A technical guideline from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and 

Water Management (BMLFUW), coordinated with the Provinces about the technical requirements and 

contents of the following flood hazard and flood risk maps is finalized. 

4.2.3 Czech Republic 


In the Czech part of the Morava river basin the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI) is 

responsible for the both meteorological and hydrological forecasting and warning. In the Czech 

Republic, Central Forecasting Office (CFO) and six Regional Forecasting Offices (RFO) have 

meteorological and hydrological departments cooperating closely together. Forecasting methodology 


Report on Achievements in FP 13 

has been improved by introducing hydrological models into the forecasting service mainly after the 

extreme flood in 1997. 

The hydrological forecasting system is connected to the meteorological forecasting system. The flood 

forecasting system regularly provides hydrological forecast to the River Basin Authorities and other 

stakeholders and public them on the CHMI web site. In case of flood it informs the flood protection 

authorities and other participants involved in the flood protection about actual flood danger and flood 

development. Warning messages are disseminated if extreme meteorological or hydrological 

conditions are being forecasted and during floods are accompanied by information on the flood 

evolution and its further prediction. 

The forecasting system HYDROG has been set up for the whole Morava river basin containing 25 

forecasting profiles. The lead time of the forecast is 24 and 48 hours. It includes also reservoir 

operation routines for optimalization of the possible future operations. The model is running every 

day. There is a close cooperation with Austria in place: in the regional Brno office of the Czech 

Hydrometerological Institute every day a discharge forecast for the Austrian gauge stations Raabs and 

Schwarzenau in the Dyje river basin is computed. In return Austria provides extended meteorological 

data for Austrian part of the Dyje/Thaya river basin. 

Continuous data on water courses and reservoirs are available at following web services partly 

provided in English and other languages: 

http://www.pmo.cz/portal/sap/en/index.htm 

(partly provided in English, Slovak, German, Hungarian, Polish language) 



Within the frame of the European Territorial Co-operation 2007 – 2013 (AT, CZ) a project on Flood 

forecasting in the confluence area of the rivers Morava and Dyje has been launched. As a result of this 

project the extended upgrade of the forecasting model HYDROG for the Morava river basin has been 

prepared. Since February 2010 the upgraded model is in test operation and the forecasts for the profile 

Hohenau (A) and Moravský Sv. Ján (SK) on the Morava River have been disseminated daily. Work on 

this project will continue also in 2011. 

Following improvements of flood forecasting and early warning system have been recorded: 

- interlinking regional and national agencies to facilitate and promote the exchange of source data; 

- routing of the information downstream as the basis of improving efficiency and lead time of flood 

forecasting and warning ; 

- improving the methodology and tools for data collection, processing, forecasting and 

dissemination - nowcasting and flash flood forecasting is in place; 

- end-users training accomplished and feedback collected. 

Thanks to the European Structural and Cohesion funds the Ministry of the Environment provides 

subsidies for elimination of the flood risk thorough the Operational Programme Environment 

(www.opzp.cz). One of the objectives is support of building local flood alert systems for 

municipalities and regional authorities. In line with this simple local systems are built in Morava river 

basin having a simple design for obtaining the data from ultrasonic water stage indicators and 

pluviometers connected with modern wireless public address system and with regional web pages. 

Structural flood protection projects: 

The new flood protection measures have been prepared since the extreme flood in 1997. They include 

the construction of new retention storages as dry polders with the aim to reduce and delay the flood 

wave, to further protect the local settlement areas and to revitalize the floodplains. Preventive 

measures focus primarily on technical proposals where their realization provides tangible benefits as 



well as the opportunities for the land-use changes. In 1999 – 2001, 14 flood protection measures were 

built with total costs of about 177 mill. of CZK. 

In the years 2002 – 2007 the Ministry of Agriculture started the programme “Flood Prevention” and 

during this programme about 75 structural flood protection measures were built in the Morava river 

basin by all river administrators (Morava River Board, s.e., Agricultural Water Management Authority 

and the Forests of the Czech Republic, s.e.). The total costs for these measures were about 1518 mill. 

of CZK. 

The preparation of flood protection measures continues in the Czech Republic with the programme 

“Flood prevention II” in the years 2008 – 2013, where about 10 bill. of CZK is allocated for the flood 

prevention measures. 

The flood protection measures finished till the end of 2009 in the Morava river basin: 

Period Programme No. of flood protection Total 

costs 

measures 

(mill. of CZK) 

1999 - 2001 - 14 177 

2002 - 2007 Flood Prevention 75 1 518 

2008 - 20013 Flood Prevention II 47 487 

Thanks to the Structural and Cohesion funds of EU the Ministry of the Environment provides 

subsidies for elimination of the flood risk through the Operational Programme Environment 

(www.opzp.cz) allocating about 100 mil. EUR for projects in 2007-2013. 


Water Management Information Portal “Water” was established by the Ministry of the Agriculture and 

Ministry of the Environment where the latest information about water in the Czech Republic, 

including floods, is available to the public. 



Information about available flood zones is also available to the public through the web service HEIS 

VÚV and by POVIS – Flood information service: 

Examples of the flood zones at Morava and Drevnice rivers junction: 

Ministry of the Environment organizes training for the members of the flood committees and state 

administrations in the Morava river basin. Flood information system POVIS together with Digital 

flood management plan of the Czech Republic was established by Ministry of the Environment. This 

information platform has been developing since 2006 and provides now important information to 

flood committees and to public, runs shared databases of contacts, digital flood management plans, 

hydrological characteristics, flood plains, objects in flood risk and object of flood risk and so on. 

Development of information system is funded by the Operational Programme Environment as well as 

by local alert systems. About hundred of municipal or regional projects have been launched since 

2008. The adopted projects will primarily address the vulnerability of small catchments and local 

floods. 

River Basin Authorities together with the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute re-established the 

“dispatcher games”, where teams from dispatching centres for dam and hydraulic structure 

manipulation come together to compete with flood simulations in the real catchment. 

New transnational initiative to tackle flooding in transboundary area shared by Czech Republic, 

Austria, Hungary and Slovakia is project CEframe - Central European Flood Risk Assessment and 

Management, supported from the European programme Central Europe 2013. The scope of the project 

is: 

• Sustainable integrated flood risk management 

• Joint Assessment of Flood Management 

• Harmonization of methodologies for flood protection, keeping compliance to EU Flood 

Directive 

Ceframe results will increase protection capacities of areas particularly affected by danger of flooding. 

In these areas flood damages have had significant negative impacts on settlement and economy. The 

reduction of risk will lead to higher safety for people living there and to investments in new 

enterprises. CEframe will strongly consider the common interests and goals of project partners 



following their national regulations in the respective countries and their will to seek a balanced and 

constructive approach to existing problems. 

Starting with setup of the basic data bases, the current state of flood protection and flood risk will be 

assessed. A comprehensive inventory of all currently applied strategies completes the basic analysis, 

with objective of building the ground for future-oriented activities and for gathering best practices out 

of the partner pool. Further influencing factors - land use activities - are identified. Interactions 

between land uses and flooding are assessed. The driving forces and different influences will be 

merged, and their impacts on danger of flooding will be analyzed. 

The concluding step is development of appropriate measures and exclusion of their possible negative 

effects, together with a web-based information and communication site, to reach a sustainable flood 

protection management. All measures concerning flood prevention and protection will be compiled 

in an action plan. The contributions of the partners, cooperating in the activities by using jointly 

developed methodologies, will be processed in form of reports, maps, guidelines, common tools and 

management proposals. One of the project aim is also harmonization flood risk management in frame 

of the Directive 2007/60/ES. 


Transposition and implementation of floods directive is under the competences of Ministry of the 

Environment and Ministry of Agriculture. Transposition into Water Act and related legislation is 

supposed to be finished in 2010. The Act No. 150/2010 Coll. updates the Czech Water Act according 

to the requirements of European Flood Directive since August 2010. 

The EFD implementation is coordinated by the national expert group “Implementation of EFD”. In 

2009 the suitable methodology for preparation of flood hazard maps and flood risks maps was 

developed based on available data sources in the Czech Republic. The preparation of the preliminary 

flood risk assessment is underway and it is expected to be finished in 2010. A methodology for 

identification of the areas with potential significant flood risk, which covers risk of fluvial floods, has 

been finished this year. First outcomes of identification of the areas with potential significant flood 

risk in 2009 are shown in the figure below (river stretches in red color are those identified as having 

significant risk from fluvial floods). Work is still ongoing on methodology covering flash and pluvial 

floods. 

The projects of flood mapping were launched in 2009 with co-financing from the Operational 

Programme Environment and are expected to be finished by the deadline given by EFD. Flood hazard 

and flood risk maps will be prepared for about 2500 kilometers of river stretches. 



In the Czech Republic the flood protection is also an integral part of the first River Basin Management 

Plan. The Morava and Dyje river basin management plans were finished in 2009 and the plans were 

adopted by the regional authorities. The WFD programme of measures includes flood protection 

measures as well. Ministry of the Environment allocated 2 bil. CZK in the Operational Programme 

Environment to support realization of some structural measures planned in RBMPs. 

4.2.4 Slovakia 


A key issue is the implementation of a national project POVAPSYS – Flood warning and forecasting 

system of the Slovak Republic. The system consists of 12 main subsystems – Integrated system of 

operation, Network of terrestrial meteorological stations, Network of terrestrial hydrological stations, 

Telecommunication technologies and telecommunication computer, Transmission and processing of 

meteorological satellite data, Network of meteorological radio locators, Other appliances of remote 

sensing, Information technologies, data processing and storage, Meteorological forecasting methods 

and models, Hydrological forecasting methods and models, Information dissemination to users,. 

Existing networks, instruments and appliances were in the frame of the project upgraded, modernized 

and extended. 

Trilateral cooperation (Czech Republic – Austria – Slovakia) which focuses on the improvement of 

flood forecasting in the whole Morava river basin is under testing. On-line information on the actual 

development of hydrological situation is available at 

http://www.shmu.sk/sk/?page=1&id=hydro_vod_all#tab 


The relevant projects are listed in the following table: 



reporting unit river basin river project timeplan funding description 

Pannonian 

Central Danube 

Danube Danube Reconstruction of flood protection line in 

Bratislava - Flood Protection 2007 - 2010 85 % Cohesion Fund, 15 % 

national sources 

Reconstruction of left-side flood protection 

dyke of the Danube river and its underground 

and the Kosihy pumping station 

Sturovo 

2003 - 2005 80 % Structural Funds, 20 % 




Construction of a new and reconstruction of existing flood 

protection lines and measures at 8 partial localities between 

Devin and Sap, pumping stations, mobile flood protection 

elements, flood protection walls and dykes, sealing of 

underground 

Sealing of flood protection dyke underground by means of 

cut-off walls 

Construction of a new flood protection wall in combination 

with mobile elements, sealing of underground 

Morava Morava Morava Dykes and flood lines reconstruction, Morava 

River rkm 89,5 – 97,05 

Suchohrad - Reconstruction of flood protection 

line 

Malina Malina River training, rkm 4,453 – 11,5 , and 

its tributary Zohorsky creek 

2007 - 2008 national sources Raised crest of dykes at several sections, sealing of dykes 

underground by means of cut-off walls, construction of 

flood protection walls in selected sites 

2009 - 2010 80,75 % Cohesion Fund, 

19,25 % national sources 

2006 - 2008 national sources 

Vah – Hron - 

Ipel 

Vah 

several rivers 

Floods at the territory of Slovakia in the period 

1997-1999, removal of consequences and 

preventive measures 

2000 - 2005 national sources Reconstruction of flood protection dykes in the section 

Piestany-Horna Streda, river training works Suciansky 

potok 

Swiss Aid – DEZA Directorate for 

Development and Cooperation, Ministry of 

Foreign Affairs 

2004 - 2005 majority from Swiss funds Polders in Lehota pod Vtacnikom, Sučany – flood 

protection, 

Vah 

Kralova hydraulic structure - removal of 1997 

flood consequences 



removal of 1997 flood consequences, protection dyke 

stabilization 

Kralova hydraulic structure - left-side flood 

protection dyke stabilization 


Rieka Čadca – Rieka river regulation 2007 - 2009 national sources 

Nitra Nové Zámky town – left-side flood protection 

dyke increasing, rkm 6,466 – 7,795 




Komjatna Komjatna – Komjatna river training 2005 - 2009 national sources 

Trnovka Žilina – Trnove - river training of Trnovka 

water course 


Maly Dunaj 

(Small Danube) 

Trstice – Cierna voda, Maly Dunaj, flood 

protection I. phase, Cierna voda river rightside 

flood protection dyke 


Hron 

Podluzianka Floods at the territory of Slovakia in the period 



2000 - 2005 national sources Flood protection lines reconstruction in Levice 

several streams Swiss Aid – DEZA Directorate for 



2004 - 2005 majority from Swiss funds Polders in Brezno, Lubietova 

Kabatovsky creek Brezno – modification of outflow regime of 

Kabátovský creek, rkm 1,182 – 1,583 


Ipel 

Ipel, Stiavnica Floods at the territory of Slovakia in the period 



2000 - 2005 national sources River training works at the rivers Ipel, Stiavnica, 

Ipel Kalinovo – Ipel river training, rkm 174,854 – 

175,325 

2009 - 2010 80,75 % Cohesion Fund, 

19,25 % national sources 

Krupinica Krupina – Krupinica river training, rkm 43,009 

– 43,690 



River training works at partial sections 

Tisa Bodrog several rivers Floods at the territory of Slovakia in the period 2000 - 2005 national sources 35 partial structures – 12 pumping stations, 7 



reconstructions of flood protection dykes, 2 canal training 

works, 12 river training works, reconstruction of hydraulic 

structures at Laborec river in Petrovce 

Kamenec, Sverzovka Swiss Aid – DEZA Directorate for 


2004 - 2006 majority from Swiss funds Polders in Fricka – on Kamenec stream, in Vysny Tvarozec 

on Sverzovka stream 


Sibska voda Bardejov - river training of Sibska voda 2005 - 2006 80 % Structural Funds, 20 % River training of Sibska voda channel, which endangered 


during floods town of Bardejov and its valuable culturalhistorical 

monuments 

Stary jarok Bystre – reconstruction of Stary jarok stream, 2005 - 2006 80 % Structural Funds, 20 % Construction of a new flood channel 

II. phase 


Laborec Koskovce - right-side flood protection dyke 2008 - 2009 national sources Reconstruction of flood protection dyke 


econstruction 

Ondava Velka Domasa hydraulic structure 2007 - 2008 80 % Structural Funds, 20 % 


Hornad 

Nr. 309 stream Dacov – Nr. 309 stream training 2005 - 2007 national sources 

Velky potok Sarisske Sokolovce – Velky potok stream 

training 


Niznoklatoviansk 

y 

potok 

Nizny Klatov – Niznoklatoviansky stream 

training 


Slana 

Stankovicka Rudna – flood protection measures 2008 - 2008 national sources 

Rimavica Kokava nad Rimavicou – river training of 

Rimavica river 



ICPDR / International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River / www.icpdr.org 


Raise of the level of dam sealing core 

River training works at partial sections


Capacity building, preparedness & flood protection 

• Development of numerical models and GIS applications for the purposes of flood forecasting 

and warning systems, operation of hydraulic structures, design of flood protection measures, 

flood hazard and flood risk mapping, crisis management (long river sections and parts of river 

basins); 

• Improvement of public involvement in the processes of flood risk awareness and preparedness 

raising; 

• Coordination of spatial planning with flood management. 


• The EU Directive on the assessment and management of flood risks was transposed into 

legislation of the Slovak Republic (new Flood Protection Act Nr. 07/2010). 

• The Slovak Water Management Enterprise, state owned enterprise has prepared project which 

will ensure execution of all EFD goals on the territory of the Slovak Republic. It should be cofinanced 

by EU Cohesion Fund. 

• The objectives of EFD were fulfilled (completely or partially) in following locations: 

• Danube, Morava Rivers – produced flooding lines in Bratislava, its centre, parts and 

suburbs Devin, Devinska Nova Ves, Petrzalka, Zitny ostrov. 

• Within the framework of “Danube FLOODRISK” international project, managed by 

Romania, will be produced the flood risk maps of Danube River (up to 2012), 

• Pilot project on flood risk assessment in the Myjava river basin – project approved, 

financing secured, project in implementation, 

• Within the framework of “CEframe” international project will be produced the flood risk 

maps of Morava and Myjava Rivers (up to 2013), 

• Vah River (hydrodynamic modelling, flood maps) in section Trencin- Kralova (project in 

implementation), sections of Kysuca and Domanizanka Rivers (hydrodynamic modelling, 

flood maps), 

• Hron River (hydrodynamic modelling, flood maps) in section Rudno nad Hronom-Velke 

Kozmalovce and in town residential area of Banska Bystrica, 

• Ipel River (hydrodynamic modelling, flood maps) in section Trenc-Sahy, Podlužianka 

River in town residential area of Levice (project in implementation), 

• The sections of Bodrog River, Latorica, Uh, Ondava and Laborec Rivers (hydrodynamic 

models), 

• The sections of Hornad River, Torysa, Svinka, Mala Svinka, Lutinka and Sekcov Rivers 

(hydrodynamic modelling, flood maps) - project in implementation 

4.2.5 Hungary 


Before 2004, using a € 2 million aid of the Hungarian government, an automated hydrometeorological 

and hydrological monitoring system has been established in Transcarpathia, UA, including USW data 

transmission system, extending to the whole territory of Transcarpathia, data procession centre in 

Uzhgorod, 15 automated stations, microwave connection between Uzhgorod and Nyíregyháza, HU. 

Maintenance of the system is undertaken by Hungary. 



Extension and upgrade of the Hungarian automated monitoring network is continuously going on, 

there are 15 regional hydrographical remote monitoring networks with more than 200 stations in 

operation. These stations regularly measure 15 parameters including those of water quality. A new 

Doppler S-band radar station near Nyíregyháza has been put into operation, aim of which is detecting 

the Upper-Tisza catchment. 

A new WEB site (http://www.hydroinfo.hu/) has been launched to replace the former HYDROINFO. 

It is in Hungarian at this moment but the translation is in progress. Water level time series of the last 

30 days can be seen from the Danube and Tisza valley upstream of their confluence 

(http://www.hydroinfo.hu/Html/hidinfo/hidinfo_map.html#). Hydrological forecasts are available at 

http://www.hydroinfo.hu/Html/hidelo/hidelo_graf_duna.html for the Hungarian Danube and at 

http://www.hydroinfo.hu/Html/hidelo/hidelo_graf_tisza.html for the Hungarian Tisza stretches. 

Further information on gauges and water levels of Hungary and the Danube Basin can be found at 

http://www.ovisz.hu/index.php?module=map. 


Reinforcement of existing flood embankments: 94.8 km (91.6 km in the Tisza Valley and 3.2 km 

along the Danube and tributaries); 

New flood embankments: 8.2 km (3.4 km in the Tisza Valley and 4.8 km along the Danube and 

tributaries); 

Repair and reconstruction of flood defences damaged during the extreme floods: 44.9 km (all in the 

Tisza Valley); 

In the frame of the ‘Upgrade of the Vásárhelyi Plan’ (Tisza) project (information in Hungarian at 

http://www.vizugy.hu/vtt/index.html# ): 

• improvement of the flood conveyance capacity in the vicinity of the Tivadar bridge on the 

Upper-Tisza. Along the Middle-Tisza between Kisköre and Szolnok similar project will start 

in the next year, with the help of the EU Structural Funds; 

• construction of two flood retention basins (Cigánd-Tiszakarádi and Tiszaroffi) with a total 

volume of 191millions m 3 has been finished by the end of 2008 and 2009; 

• experimental operation of the Tiszaroff flood retention reservoir has proved the efficiency of 

it, during the 2010 spring flood. 

• construction of flood gate at the mouth of the Lónyay principal canal was finished in 2007 

(substituting the reinforcement of the dikes of the Lónyay principal in a total length of 100 

km); 

• dike relocation and 600 ha floodplain restoration at the Bivalytó bottleneck upstream the 

Vezseny bend ; (finished in 2008, but the final removal of the old dike happened only during 

the 2010 spring flood); 

• The construction of two new flood retention basins has started in 2009. The Hany-Tiszasüly 

(247 million m 3 ) and the Nagykunsági (99 million m 3 ). The deadline for them is in the first 

half of 2012. 


Continuous development of the Lotus Notes based flood emergency information system, digitisation 

and upgrade of the contingency and confinement plans. 


At present the maps showing flood extent of 1% and 0,1% probability flood are available. This will be 

one of the bases for the preliminary flood risk assessment. The methodological project was finished in 



2010. National guideline on this issue has been prepared and is subject to upgrading. GIS based digital 

flood hazard maps are being developed for several smaller flood areas, covering approx. 5% of the 

total floodplains. A budget for the implementation of the EU Flood Directive has been allocated for 

2007-2013 in the Energy and Environment Operative Programme of the National Development Plan. 

The data collection for the flood risk and flood hazard maps will start this year. 

4.2.6 Slovenia 


The Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia, Hydrology Forecasting Department is 

responsible for forecasting hydrological events on the national level and launching flood warnings to 

the Notification Centre of the Republic of Slovenia. The Agency's mission is to monitor, analyse and 

forecast natural phenomena and processes in the environment, and to reduce natural threats to people 

and property. 

Since 2005 the operative practises in national forecasting department improved with forecasting tools 

based on international cooperation. In the time period from 2005 to 2007 The National hydrological 

forecasting service has become a full member of EFAS (European Flood Alert System) and MAP D- 

Phase (Mesocsale Alpine Program), covering forecasts up to 10 days ahead. Within bilateral 

cooperation between Land Steiermark (Austria) and Slovenia in 2006 a common operative Flood 

Forecasting System for the river Mura was established. 

In 2009 the most extensive project titled "Upgrading the system for monitoring and analysing the state 

of the water environment in Slovenia" has launched. The project is financed by the EU Cohesion Fund 

and the share of Slovenia’s co-funding. The purpose of the project is to increase the capacity of the 

Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia to monitor, examine and forecast water cycle 

factors. The particular important is balanced spatial planning and thus improved water management 

and the setting up of representative grids of measuring points for evaluating the state of water bodies. 

The protection of human health and life against the consequences of natural disasters (protection 

against floods and droughts) is another very important aspect, which should be based on correct and 

timely meteorological and hydrological forecasts and the provision of data in real time. 

The expected results of the project by 2015: 

• 248 upgraded and new measuring points throughout Slovenia; 

• replacement of equipment at 33 measuring points; 

• installation of an additional weather radar; 

• new equipment for periodic hydrological measurements and sea dynamics measurements; 

• provision of conditions for the operation of the Maritime Meteorological and Oceanographic 

Service; 

• upgrading the computer infrastructure in the Computer Centre; 

• upgrading and enlarging chemical, analytical, biological and calibration laboratories; 

• setting up systems to forecast the hydrological state of the Sava and the Soča rivers, sea 

dynamics, state of the underground water in alluvial aquifers and drought monitoring. 


Repair and reconstruction of water infrastructure, damaged during the extreme (flash) floods 2007, is 

continued. 



Spatial planning of flood protection measures in two significant flood risk areas are finishing in 

2010/2011 and construction starting are planed for 2012/2013. Spatial planning of flood protection 

measures for at least two significant flood risk areas planed to be started at 2011. 

Ongoing project of construction of hydropower stations on lower section of river Sava involved 

maintenance, restoration, improvement and the construction of new structural flood defences (dikes, 

detention reservoirs) for flood protection of existing settlements. 


New legislation was adopted, which defined the national methodology for flood hazard and flood risk 

mapping, and also the legislation which sets the preventive rules for urban planning and construction 

of buildings in flood hazard areas. The preparation of hazard maps started on local scale and the local 

administration, investors and general public in local communities are participating in process of spatial 

planning with grater awareness of flood danger. 


In connection to Flood Directive Slovenia started an important changes in flood risk prevention 

practices. New legislation was adopted, which defined the national methodology for flood hazard and 

flood risk mapping, and also the legislation which sets the preventive rules for urban planning and 

construction of buildings in flood hazard areas. Transposition of EFD to Slovenian legal system was 

concluded on time and National Work Programme for preparation of flood risk management plans was 

signed in May 2009. A first hazard indication map (HIM) was published in 2007 and is now under 

review. This map will also be a basis for Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment, finalization of which is 

planed for 2010/11. The indicative flood map, which is a subject of updating, is public available: 

http://gis.arso.gov.si/atlasokolja/profile.aspx?id=Atlas_Okolja_AXL@Arso . 

Based on the new legislation new principles were introduced in flood risk reduction planning: 

• precautionary principle (information on flood hazard, awareness of direct and indirect flood 

risks); 



• high priority on non-structural measures (protection of non urbanized flood plains, limitations 

for urban planning in flood areas, intervention and preparedness planning, early warning 

systems, building standards for flood areas); 

• structural measures: measures for flood management in the catchment (retention) should have 

priority over structural changes of main river morphology and should take into account other 

objectives (water ecology, biodiversity); 

• planning priorities for risk reduction measures are focused on existing risks to human health, 

important economic activities, environment and cultural heritage; 

• level of protection should be based on cost-benefit analysis. 

4.2.7 Croatia 


Currently, a national-wide hydrological monitoring network consolidation project is under way, 

aiming at further standardization, improvement and optimisation of data collection and dissemination. 

At present, 142 hydrological stations are available on line. Number of automatic hydrologic stations is 

shown in the following table: 

NUMBER OF AUTOMATIC HYDROLOGICAL STATIONS 

DANUBE SUB BASINS 142 

SAVA RIVER BASIN 116 

DANUBE AND DRAVA RIVER BASINS 26 

Basic information on water levels and flood warnings is available for public on a redesigned webpage 

of Hrvatske vode (http://isite.voda.int/Default.aspx?sec=191 ), webpage of State Hydrometeorological 

Service (http://hidro.hr/hidro.php?id=hidro&param=Podaci ), on WAP mobile phones and on teletext 

of Croatian Radio Television. 

For an internal use by Hrvatske vode a more comprehensive hydrologic data collection and 

dissemination system is being built taking in consideration not only flood monitoring and warnings 

but other requirements of water management as well. 

Hydrologic data collection and dissemination system of Hrvatske vode 

In cooperation with State Hydrometeorological Service, online meteorological data as well as weather 

forecasts (Aladin and ECMWF models) are integrated in it. 



Precipitation forecast (ECMWF model) and comparison of results of Aladin and ECMWF models aggregated 

on the level of watershed. 

In the next phases, an improvement of existing flood forecasting models and integration of their results 

is expected. After the test phase, selected products will be available for other users (National 

Protection And Rescue Directorate) and for public. 


The principles of EFD and Action Programme for Sustainable Flood Protection in the Danube River 

Basin are included in the National water management strategy which was adopted in the Croatian 

Parliament in 2009. As a consequence, a new Water Act, fully in compliance with WFD and EFD, 

which sets the legal basis for the implementation of EFD was adopted in the beginning of 2010. Flood 

protection related bylaws of the new Water Act are being prepared and most of them have been 

already adopted. Three flood risk mapping pilot projects have been finished for Krapina (1.240 km 2 ), 

Karašica - Vučica (2.350 km 2 ) and Orljava (1.620 km 2 ) Česma (3.100 km 2 ),and Ilova (1.816 km 2) 

basins. Additional projects aiming to methodology testing, but also to data collection and preliminary 

flood risk analysis are under way (Kupa River Basin -8.412 km 2 ). 

In 2007, a project to improve spatial planning data interpretation for RBM and flood risk management 

purposes was launched. It has been extended with an additional project starting in 2010, which will 

deliver more detailed data required for flood risk mapping. 

For IPA funding, a Twinning project on “Development of flood hazard maps and flood risk maps” 

is nominated. Some of expected results of this project are definition and testing of methodologies for 

flood risk mapping, development of guidances for flood risk management planning and capacity 

building. 

Large alluvial wetlands have been preserved until today in the Central Sava Basin, in order to reduce 

the maximum peaks of the Sava and Kupa rivers during high water. This concept has proved very 

effective and it is an excellent model for flood-control systems: not only are retention areas preserved 

as safety-features, they also maintain a high biological diversity in the region. The system, only partlycompleted 

so far, has proved to be very effective in recent years, protecting important towns such as 

Zagreb, Karlovac and Sisak, and large agricultural areas, against flooding.. With 109 000 hectares 

extent, it is the largest floodplain ecosystem in the Danube River Basin and an important nutrient-sink 

for the Upper and Central Sava Basin. Further development of established flood retention vs. 

protection strategy will be an outcome of the ongoing activities in the Middle Posavina project. 



Česma River Basin –– Land use andf lood extent map for RP of 100 years 

Česma River Basin - potential damages for RP of 100 years 



Central Sava flood protection system 

Lonjsko polje during dry and wet season 

4.2.8 Serbia 


Automatization of a national real-time hydrological information and forecasting system is ongoing. 

The upgrade of the system will include adding of 25 new automatic acquisition stations and digital 

registering of water levels with the GSM connection. 




Flood in spring 2006 tested the sufficiency of the flood defense by structural measures along the 

Danube and the Tisa in Serbia, which was proved to be successful in most of the locations. However, 

it revealed that protection of several towns along the Danube River (Novi Sad, Belgrade, Smederevo, 

Veliko Gradište and Golubac) is not adequate, because flood protection structures have insufficient 

freeboard above the 100-year flood level. After 2006 flood, preparation of construction/reconstruction 

projects started, both for the Danube and the Tisza rivers. Also, protection of the Macva region from 

the Sava and the Drina floods will be improved within the large infrastructural project partially 

financed by World bank. 

There are many structural flood protection projects on other large rivers in Serbia. These projects are 

mostly of local significance, and aimed at reconstruction/rehabilitation of existing structures. 

Nevertheless, repeated severe floods in 2009 and 2010 revealed that some urgent new flood protection 

structures and measures should be introduced in the following period. 


State Hydro-meteorological Service provides actual water stage and discharge data and 2-4 days 

hydrological forecasts for Danube, Tisa, Sava, Morava and other rivers in Serbia 

(http://www.hidmet.sr.gov.yu/eng/hidrologija). 

Once a year, the Serbian Directorate for Water issues the Annual plan for flood defense (presently it is 

the 2008 plan). It is a public document (http://www.minpolj.sr.gov.yu), which contains data on flood 

managers, control water gauges, and criteria for proclaiming regular and emergency flood defense – 

for all rivers and flood cells. Local communities have to produce the Action plans for flood protection 

on their territories, and distribute them publicly. 

After the adoption of Law in 2009, the Sector for Emergency Situations within the Ministry of Interior 

was created with the following five departments as part of the new organization: fire and rescue units, 

risk management, civil protection, and the National Training Centre for Emergency Situations. It had a 

very important role in rescue operations during torrent floods, and involved mass media and wider 

public in flood risk management problems. 




New Water law adopted in May 2010 includes provisions of Floods directive i.e. obligations to 

undertake PFRA, prepare flood maps and FRMPs. Preliminary flood risk assessment for the territory 

of Republic of Serbia started in 2009, and will be finished in 2011. All available national GIS 

databases are used for PFRA, as well as a database of indicative flood maps, made in 2006. Two types 

of floods are recognized: external (river and torrent floods) and internal (pluvial and groundwater 

floods). 1 st PFRA (2011) will deal only with floods on large and smaller rivers, while torrents and 

internal floods will be left for the 2 nd PFRA (2017). 

The project between the Serbian Directorate for Water and the Swedish Rescue Services Agency 

(financed by Swedish EPA) ”Development of a first draft Flood Risk Management Plan for Tamnava 

River Basin, Serbia” was finished in June 2010. All phases of Flood risk management planning were 

successfully accomplished, involving many stakeholders at national and local level. 

Flood hazard and flood risk maps are being produced within a few international projects. The EU 

financed Study of flood prone areas in Serbia – phase 1 will produce maps for the Velika Morava river 

basin and the Danube downstream of Belgrade, while within the Danube Floodrisk maps are prepared 

for the upstream reach of the Danube in Serbia. Production of maps for the Sava river corridor 

(coordinated by Sava Commission) started with preparation of a HEC RAS hydraulic model. 

Flood hazard map for the Tamnava river 

4.2.9 Bosnia and Herzegovina 


Improvement of early warning system against accidental pollution together with continuous water 

level monitoring is completed (13 automatic monitoring stations on Sava River, and its tributaries, are 

in final phase of installation). There are two automatic hydrological monitoring stations in operation 

on the Sava River and 15 hydrological, hydro meteorological and meteorological automatic 

monitoring stations on the main Sava tributaries. 




Following achievements have been reported during last two years: 

• Framework Plan of Water Sector Development in Republika Srpska has been adopted 

(October 2006) 

• Action Plan for Implementation of Water Sector Development in Republika Srpska has been 

adopted (June 2007) 

• Improvement of Erosion Map for Republika Srpska. Project started in 2004, end of project is 

planed for 2010. Beginning of site testing for erosion processes is planed for 2008-2009. 

• Preparation of Study for Sustainable Development of Irrigation Systems in Republika Srpska 

for 50.000 ha (end of activity 2007) 

• Preparation of activities for Water Balance Analyse in BiH - Republika Srpska 

• Flood Protection Plan for Odžak and Orašje Posavina (in Federation of Bosnia and 

Herzegovina) 

• Regulation on Flood Protection plans (in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) 

• Decision on Flood Protection Operational Plan (in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) 

• Flood Protection Main Prevention Plan (in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) 

Progress in implementation of EFD - Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

According to the provisions of Water Law ("Official Gazette of Federation BiH", No. 70/06), the 

government of Federation BiH upon the proposal of Minister of Federal Ministry of Agriculture, 

Water Management and Forestry has passed the Regulation on types and content of plans for 

protection against the harmful impacts of water ("Official Gazette of Federation BiH ", No. 26/09). 

The regulation is completely harmonized with EFD (Directive 2007/60/EC). Since Bosnia and 

Herzegovina still is not the member of the European Union, deadlines for performing of the activities 

defined by Directive 2007/60/EC are postponed according to the implementation of provisions of the 

Water Law and international obligations from Water Sector, as follows: 

• Preliminary assessment of flood risk will be done within 5 years from coming into force of the 

Regulation (2014). 

• Maps of flood danger and flood risk will be prepared within 6 years from coming into force of 

the Regulation (2015). 

• First Flood risk management plans will be adopted not later than 8 years from coming into 

force of the Regulation (2017). 

By Article 5 of the Regulation it was envisaged that for each watershed which lies within the territory 

of Federation the preliminary flood risk assessment will be done. "Agency for Watershed of Sava 

River" Sarajevo (AVP Sava) developed the map of watershed of the Sava River in a digital form, with 

delineated boundaries of river basins and sub-basins and with presented topography and land use. All 

mentioned data are available in a GIS format in the Water Information System of BiH. 

In order to make the preliminary assessment of flood risk in watershed of the River Sava in Federation 

BiH, AVP Sava has started, by the end of 2009, activities on preparation of methodology for 

watercourses of first category which belong to the competence of the Federation. In order to collect 

the data on floods, which occurred in the past and which have caused significant impacts to human 

health, environment, cultural heritage and economic activities, and for which the probability of similar 

future occurrences is still high, the questionnaire was prepared which was delivered to all 

municipalities in FBiH which are located along watercourses of the first category. Based on the 



preliminary assessment of flood risk the areas will be identified for which the existence of significant 

flood risks is assumed (flooding areas). 

It is necessary to mention that already in 2000 the study on “Assessment of the present level of flood 

protection in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and making of improvement program” was 

produced. The tasks of the Study were: 

• Identification of areas subject to floods, 

• Preparation of maps of areas endangered by floods, 

• Development of topographic layers for hydrological and hydraulic analyses and 

implementation of these analyses, 

• Preparation of cadastre of existing systems for flood protection, 

• Assessment of the present risk in flooding areas, 

• Selection of technical alternatives for each area, 

• Economic and financial analyses. 

Based on the collected data from the available project documentation, site visits and terrain 

recognition as well as the analysis of hydrological data, the following areas in the watershed of Sava 

river in FBiH were identified as being endangered by floods: 

No. Watercourse Area 

1. Sava Wider area of Odžak (from Šamac to Svilaj) 

2. Sava Wider area of Orašje (from Domaljevac to Vučilovac) 

3. Una Area of town Kulen Vakuf 

4. Una Wider area of Bihać (from Ripače to Pokoj) 

5. Una Area of town Bosanska Krupa 

6. Una Area of place Bosanska Otoka 

7. Vrbas Area of town Gornji Vakuf 

8. Vrbas Area of town Donji Vakuf 

9. Bosna Part of Sarajevsko polje from Plandište to Reljevo 

10. Bosna Coastal area of lower part of river Bosna downstream from 

Modriča – to Šamac 

11. Drina Area of town Goražde 

12. Glina Coastal area of Glina in FBiH and lower parts of Glinica 

and Kladušnica 

13. Korana Coastal area of Korana in FBiH and lower part of Mutnica 

14. Spreča Valley downstream from reservoir Modrac (from Lukavac 

to Brijesnica) 

15. Spreča Valley upstream from reservoir Modrac (from Osmaci to 

mouth of Spreča into reservoir) 

16. Tinja Wider area of town Srebrenik 

17. Tinja Wider area of settlement Tinja 

18. Usora Valley of Usora in FBiH from Kaloševići to the inflow in 

river Bosna 

19. Sana Wider area of town Sanski Most 

20. Lašva Town Travnik and area of Dolac 

21. Lašva Vitez area 

As it can be seen in the table, the areas most endangered by floods are the valleys of significant 

watercourses. 



Hydraulic models were prepared for the relevant parts of the watercourses. Geodetic and hydrological 

elements were used as input data. The modeling provided the relevant flows and levels for occurrence 

of characteristic return periods (20-years, 100-years and 500-years). The calculated levels helped to 

define three flooding lines which were presented on the maps with scale of 1:25000. 

In order to fulfill the EFD obligations the activities were conducted on surveying of different 

watercourses in Federation BiH in the watershed of Sava River. The survey is mainly conducted by 

combination of ortho-photo shots of the terrain, DTM and classic geodetic recording of beds of 

watercourses and it will lead to development of hydraulic models of watercourses which will, with use 

of adequate software (Mike 11, Hec-Ras), enable the making of flood hazard maps and flood risk 

maps and simulation of occurrence of flooding waves. 

Progress in implementation of EFD - Republika Srpska 

According to the provisions of the Water Law (Official Journal of Republika Srpska, No. 50/06, from 

May 31, 2006), the Government of Republika Srpska adopted the Action Plan on sustainable 

management of flood risk in the basin of the river Danube with an application to the sub-basin of the 

river Sava for the area of Republika Srpska – planning period 2010-2021 (163 rd session of the 

Government of Republika Srpska from March 04, 2010). The Action Plan identified the following 

deadlines for the realization of activities according to the European Floods Directive: 

Preliminary flood risk assessment 

Deadline: Dec. 22, 2012, updating by Dec. 22, 2018 and every six years after that. 

Maps of flood damages and flood risks 

Deadline: Dec. 22, 2013, updating by Dec. 22, 2019 and every six years after that. 

Flood risk management plans 

Deadline: Dec. 22, 2015, updating by Dec. 22, 2021 and every six years after that. 

In Republika Srpska the strategic document „Framework plan for development of water management 

of Republika Srpska for the planning period 2007-2016 “ was prepared. By the decision of the 

Government of RS, on the session held on October 20, 2006, No. 04/1-012-2258/06, the Framework 

Plan of development of water management of Republika Srpska was adopted. Its implementation is 

managed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management RS aiming to prepare the 

Action Plan for realization of the Framework Plan. The Government of RS adopted the Action Plan 

for the realization of Framework Plan of development of water management of Republika Srpska on 

June 14, 2007. 

According to the Water Law RS and Framework Plan RS for Sava River basin district and Water 

protection the following activities are planned to be realized: 

• Protection form flooding from watercourses: 

o Revitalization of the existing systems in the Sava basin in the length of 204 km, 

o Construction of new systems in the length of 30.60 km. 

• Protection from flooding by internal waters: 

o Revitalization of the existing systems: 

• 21 pumping stations, Qmin= 124 m3/s, 

• 1150 km drainage canals. 

o Construction of new systems: 

• 2 pumping stations, Qmin= 12.40 m3/s, 



• 115 km of drainage canals. 

• Protection from flooding by inflowing waters, Edge canals: 

o Revitalization of the existing systems in the length of 192 km, 

o Construction of new systems in the length of 35 km. 

• Regulation of river flows/rivers: 

o Revitalization of the existing systems (partial regulations 26 km, bank fortifications 

38 km) 

o Construction of new systems (River Una, 20 km, River Vrbas, 50 km, River Bosna, 

75 km, River Drina, 40 km.) 

• Protection from erosion and torrents: 

o Revitalization of the existing torrent partitions and regulation of the significant 

torrents, 

o Implementation of protection measures (biological, bio-technical and technical 

measures). 

The following catchment areas were identified for which the Flood Risk Management Plans according 

to EFD will be prepared: 

DANUBE 

BASIN 

TRIBUTARIES 

IN BiH 

LENGTH 

(km) 

SURFACE (km 2 ) 

RS FBiH BiH 

PERCENTAGE 

OF SURFACES 

OF TRIBUTARIES 

OF r. SAVA (%) 

UNA 507 3.698 5.432 9.130 23.58 

VRBAS 419 3.989 2.397 6.386 16.49 

UKRINA 373 1.500 0.00 1.500 3.88 

RIVER 

SAVA 

BOSNA 306 2.872 7.585 10.457 27.00 

TINJA 93 321 644 965 2.49 

DRINA 175 6.415 825 7.240 18.70 

DIRECT 

SAVA 

CATCHMENT 

332 2.108 933 3.041 7.86 

TOTAL: 2.205 20.903 17.816 38.719 100 

4.2.10 Romania 




Ongoing projects: 

• Hydrologic information-decision system (DESWAT). Goals: construction at the national level 

of an integrated information-decision system for prevention and mitigation of disaster effects 

caused by floods. Project is supported by the Programme of the United States Agency for 

International Development (USAID); 

• Information System for Integrated Water Management (WATMAN). Goals: increase of 

reaction and preparedness by the central public administration in case of floods, accidents at 

hydraulic structures and accidental pollution; development of a system for evaluation of flood 

damages. Project is supported by USAID. 

• Flood-Wise - a project in which the European water managers exchange experiences with 

flood risk management. The objective is to improve the cross border flood risk management in 

European river basins (in Someş-Tisa area in Romania). 

• Improving flood-defense and environmental sanitation on the Tisa River border between 

Romania and Ukraine. 

Recently finalized projects 

• FLIWAS – FLood Information and WArning System (in Banat area), finalized in February 

2010; 

• Flood Prevention and Mitigation through an integrated information- decision system (Hajdu- 

Bihar county in Hungary and Bihor county in Romania, in Crişuri basin), finalized in February 

2010; 

• Hydrometeorological data resources and technologies for effective flash flood forecasting 

HYDRATE, finalized in August 2009; 

• Improving of capacity management and reaction of the transboundary region in case of natural 

calamities (in Jiu basin); 

• Assistance to develop a flood damage prevention strategy for Romania’s transport, finalized in 

March 2009; 

• WIMS - Investment supporting the information system and database for water management 

(in all basins) finalized in November 2008. 

Structural flood protection projects. 

In November 2009 the PHARE project “Trotuş and Tazlău river and tributaries improvement 

(Harghita and Bacău county)” was finalized in the Siret basin. 

The Annual National Investment Programme of Romanian Waters includes structural flood protection 

projects for rehabilitation after flooding events and for improving the protection degree of the existing 

hydraulic works in each major river basin. 


Each four years the flood protection plans and records on hazardous weather, accidents at hydraulic 

structures and pollution incidents are updated. These plans are prepared at the local, hydrotechnical 

system, basin and county levels. In March 2010 the plans have been finalized for the period 2010- 

2013. The flood protection plans at the county level include for the first time the inundation areas 

presented in GIS format They use the historical data and show floods with different probabilities. 

Public consultation and information 

The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development initiated public information/consultation 

campaign regarding status of elaboration of a guidance on hydrographic basin improvement and 

management. The guidance is developed at the basin level with the support of Romanian Waters 

National Administration. 




The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure develops a project for “Identification and 

delimitation of natural hazards (earthquakes, landslides and floods) having following objectives: 

localization and delimitation of zones exposed to natural hazards, earthquakes, landslides and floods; 

elaboration of hazard maps for these areas, phenomena description at the county level and 

establishment of programme of measures for prevention and mitigation of consequences of natural 

hazards. It will include the first assessment of natural hazards in Romania (earthquakes, landslides and 

floods). The study will be finished by the end of 2010. 

The Government Ordinance 1309/2005 established the National Programme for prevention, protection 

and mitigation of flood effects. The National Strategy for Flood Risk Management on mid and longterm 

basis was adopted by the Romanian Government in August 2010. The necessity for a long-term 

national strategy is considered as a top priority given the recent flood events in the country. There is a 

need to move from the defensive actions to the flood risk management focusing on the 

implementation of the EFD. In 2010, a Master Plan for Prut-Bârlad hydrographic space was 

elaborated. In February 2010 a new and fully revised Water Law was approved. 

A new institution was established in July 2010 under the Ministry of Environment and Forests named 

The National Authority for Inundation and Water Management. The main objective is the National 

Strategy for Flood Risk Management implementation. 

4.2.11 Bulgaria 


Assessment and forecasts of water quantity are carried out on a national level by the Ministry of 

Environment and Water. The main provider of the data, scientific research and operational activities in 

the field of meteorology and hydrology is the National Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology at 

BAS (Bulgarian Academy of Science). Thе institute performs monitoring of rainfall, groundwater and 

surface water. National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology is a member of EFAS (European 

Flood Alert System), covering forecasts up to 10 days ahead. 

The Executive Agency for Exploration and Maintenance of the Danube River performs the monitoring 

of water quantity the of the Danube River. 

A PHARE project on automatization of monitoring stations with the view of improving a national 

real-time hydrological information and forecasting system is finalized. The supply component 

included an upgrade of the surface monitoring system i.e. new automatic acquisition stations and 

digital registering of water levels with the GSM connection. By the end of 2009 eight automatic 

monitoring stations on the major tributaries and the Danube River in Bulgaria are in place. Six of them 

have the capacity to register water level. Two of the automatic stations are on the Danube stretch – 

near Novo selo and Silistra. Currently the available data needs to be further verified and validated and 

has a low level of confidence. 


In reaction to the flood events 2005-2006, a large number of structural projects were initiated. Most of 

them are at the local level and are focused on the improvement of the existing or building of new flood 

protection structures. 

In 2009, а project on „Rehabilitation And Strengthening of River and Coastal Banks on the Black Sea 

and the Danube” was completed, financed through government investment loan from the European 



Investment Bank (EIB) and Development Bank Council Europe, and co-financed by the Bulgarian 

government. Part of this project was a Component on Protection of the Danube banks against erosion, 

which main purpose is to stop the river erosion on the Bulgarian bank of the river and prevent areas 

from possible flood risk. In 2008 a project on Construction of a protective device in the Danube reach 

between rkm 702 to rkm 699.5 was started. 


To increase preparedness public information meetings, training courses and risk studies describing 

different flood scenarios were organized for certain pilot areas. In addition, two projects are 

implemented in Bulgaria aiming to strengthen the administrative capacity, to improve the information 

dissemination and to support the improvement of flood management. 

BulgaRisk is a Bulgarian-French project aiming at the integration of satellite imageries in the 

operational procedures of risk management in Bulgaria. The specific objectives of the project are to 

prepare a report on the status and the needs of the governmental institutions in Bulgaria and on the 

needs of geographic data during all stages of disaster management - prior, during and after their 

occurrence. The project also aims to demonstrate to the decision makers and to other interested parties 

the usefulness of satellite imageries as a source for natural hazards information and as a key 

instrument for their management. The project will create three data base prototypes for three pilot 

regions considering three types of disasters (floods, forest fires and water pollution). Experts from 

Danube River Basin Directorate take part in the training programme of the project. 

The main goal of the SAFER project is to provide a rapid mapping capacity in response to disastrous 

events. Such information is based on satellite images of the affected area and on reference maps, 

which SAFER prepares in advance for areas facing an elevated risk of emergencies. From 2008, 

SAFER delivers services at full scale in response to real events as well as during specific exercises. 

The project's main performance criterion is the response time: with SAFER, reference mapping will be 

made available to users within just six hours after an emergency situation arises. Assessment maps of 

the disaster area will be available within 24 hours. 55 companies and institutions are from all over the 

Europe, including the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology are part of the project's 

consortium. Pilot areas are chosen within the Danube river basin in Bulgaria and the Danube River 

Basin Directorate is identified as beneficiary of the project results in connection with flood 

management. 


European Floods Directive is transposed into national law by the Water Act. Introducing the 

requirements of the Directive provides legal adoption of the principles embodied in it, and long-term 

planning approach to reduce flood risk. The adopted amendment to the Water Act, established the 

competent authority for implementing the requirements of the Directive – the Ministry of Environment 

and Water. For the operating protection in case of flooding the competent authority is the Ministry of 

Interior. 

For the implementation of specific stages of implementation of the Directive a schedule for 

implementation has been approved based on which a roadmap for specific actions, responsibilities and 

deadlines for implementation of the Schedule is being prepared. 

Preparation of preliminary flood risk assessment, flood hazard maps and flood risk maps and flood 

risk management plans of areas at risk of flooding is a very complex task. Bulgaria does not have 

available methods and procedures for assessing the risk of flooding, and for establishing the criteria 

for significant adverse consequences of flooding. For these reasons, the needs of development of the 

respective methodologies were defined addressing all reporting requirements of EFD and taking into 

account the opportunities and resources available. These methodologies will have to reflect the 



generally accepted scientific and computational methods as well as the technical means for carrying 

out basic research, computing and other activities to assess the risk of flooding. A common 

methodology for assessing the flood risk will enable the implementation of a common approach in 

performing preliminary risk assessment for each river basin and the outcomes are expected to meet the 

same criteria across the country. 

4.2.12 Ukraine 


Tisza sub-basin 

Since 2000 an Automated Information Measuring System for flood forecasting and water resources 

management in the Tisza River basin (AIMS-Tisza) was established and is being further developed. 

The main aims of AIMS-Tisza are: 

• forecasting online flood hydrographs; 

• preparing reliable forecasting information about flood parameters and transmitting the 

information in the automatic mode to the corresponding warning services and flood protection 

divisions; 

• making recommendations for taking management decisions. 

At present AIMS Tisza consists of the following elements: 

• Data collection center in Uzhgorod with modern hardware and software; 

• System of digital ultra-short wave radio connection for data transmission, covering majority of 

Zakarpattya; 

• Satellite Data Collection Platform (DCP) and GIS-database; 

• Automatic hydrological monitoring network with 43 stations; 

• Line of microwave radio connection with the Data collection center in Uzhgorod and 

Nyirigyhaza (Hungary), providing one Internet channel and two telephone channels; 

• Crisis Center in TIAWM office that is equipped with modern technique and can provide 

necessary information and support specialists during flood periods. 



On-line data on water levels and precipitation at automatic gauging stations in the Upper Tisza river 

basin are available on the web site http://vodhosp.uzhgorod.ua/ and updated every 2 hours. 

Prut and Siret sub-basins 

Until present there is no modern digital river water level forecast model. The hydrometerological 

observations are done using the network of State Hydrometerological Service manually. Complex 

Flood Protection Scheme for Dnister, Prut and Siret river basin (2008) envisaged the improvement and 

automatization of monitoring network as well as the development of river water level and precipitation 

forecast model. 

Danube delta sub-basin 

The Centre for Analysis of Flood Situation in the Danube Area, Flood Warning and Information was 

established in November 2006 in Izmail. It is a platform for a better emergency planning, 

improvement of early flood warning and public access to information on flood situation in the 

Ukrainian Danube Region. The centre is closely cooperating with Local Authorities and the Danube 

Hydrometeorological Observatory responsible for flood forecasting in the Ukrainian Danube Region. 

In 2009 three OTT Orpheus Mini automatic hydrological stations were installed along the Ukrainian 

bank of the Danube at the Danube Hydrometeorological Observatory’s (DHMO) hydrological stations 

of Izmail, Vilkovo and Bystriy. These automatic stations consist of a combined sensor measuring 

water level and temperature and a data-logger. The results of observations automatically transmit via 

SMS with a pre-set frequency. OTT Hydras3 Rx software in installed at the DHMO’s server in order 

to automatically receive the data. Data quality is controlled with OTT Hydras3 Basic software. The 

network of these 3 stations was successfully integrated into the existing system of hydrological 

monitoring and is intensively used in DHMO’s regular observations. A system of Ukrainian- 

Romanian communication and cooperation to respond to emergency situations and extreme events 

(flood) in the Lower Danube EuroRegion is under preparation. 




The flood protection programmes were prepared for all sub-basins of the Ukrainian Danube catchment 

and they include diverse structural measures for flood protection. 

Tisza sub-basin 

In 2006-2009 in the framework of the Complex Program on Flood Protection in the Tysa River Basin 

in Transcarpathia until 2015 431 mln. UAH. was spent to implement measures: 104,8 km of 

protective dikes were reconstructed and 44,8 km of bank protection structures were constructed. This 

has enable the protection of 73 settlements and 52,3 thous. ha of agricultural lands. 

Prut and Siret sub-basins 

The flood protection system on the rivers Prut and Siret includes 70 km of protective dikes, 60 km 

of bank protection and 135 hydrotechnical objects. They protect against flooding and damaging 

about 11 600 households in 60 settlements, more than 20 000 hectares of agricultural lands, 13,5 

km engineering structures of the state border with Romania and other objects. Existing complex 

of the flood protection constructions are insufficient and need to be reconstructed. 

In 2006-2009 177,773 mln UaH was spent to reinforce and construct 11,773 km of flood protection 

dykes, 6,07 km bank protection structures and 79 dike dams. 

Danube delta sub-basin 

The existing flood protection complex along the Ukrainian part the Danube includes 255 km of flood 

protection dykes and 13 sluices. The complex is protecting 12 settlements with a total of 12.000 

inhabitants as well as the ports of Reni and Izmail, fishing farms, agricultural areas, drinking water 

inlets; highways of international importance; boundary check-points; and international transit gas 

pipelines Russia-Romania-Turkey. Existing complex do not guarantee protection of territories against 

flooding in case of high and catastrophic floods. More than 30 km of the dykes and 8 sluices need 

urgent reparation and reconstruction. 

In 2006-2009 6 mln. UAH for reinforcement of the most endangered parts of the flood protection 

dykes and reconstruction of a sluice. It is planned that 67 mln UAH will be spent by the end of 2010 to 

reinforce 25 km flood protection dykes near Reni town and 3 sluices. 


A number of international projects on capacity building have been implemented such as an 

INTERREG Neighbourhood project on transboundary waters with Hungary and Romania (2008) or 

EU-funded project on “Flood Risk Assessment and Management in Zakarpatska Oblast” (2003-2006). 

A number of brochures and videos were prepared and disseminated. To increase preparedness and 

awareness, the local branches of the State Committee of Ukraine for Water Management constantly 

update flood-related information at their internet pages (http://www.scwm.gov.ua/). 

To increase public preparedness and awareness the Odessa Regional Water Management Department 

in cooperation with Regional Department of the Ministry of Emergency Management of Ukraine and 

the Centre for Regional Studies issued an information booklet “Attention: flood! What you have to do 

when get a flood warning”. The Recommendations on Wetland Restoration in the Ukrainian part of 

the Danube Floodplain were developed as a tool for flood mitigation an assessment of the Ukrainian 

Danube Delta wetlands’ flood-storage. 

In 2010 in the frame of the Ukrainian-Flemish project “Building capacities for effective flood risk 

management in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta” an information brochure for local people 

“What you have to do in flood risk” was prepared, published and disseminated in the region. 



Progress in implementation of EFDPreliminary Flood Risk Assessment has been prepared for the 

Tisza and Danube delta; but its complete approaching to the requirements of EU Flood Directive is 

still needed. Flood hazard maps of the scale 1:10 000 for the floods of 1, 5 and 10 % probability were 

prepared for the part of Tisza basin (596 km) within the national program of Complex Flood 

Protection in Tysa River Basin in 2009. 

The Complex Flood Protection scheme for Dnister, Prut and Siret envisages automatization of the 

monitoring network and creation of flood hazard maps in 2009. 

Based upon the results of Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment the GIS for flood risk management in 

the Ukrainian part of the Lower Danube Area has been developed. It includes 10 layers at present. The 

following maps have been created: 1) flood zone map; 2) the map of potentially dangerous objects 

lying within the flood zone; 3) the map of dyke sections in critical condition (including those arising 

after the 2006 flood). 

In 2010 hydrological modeling and flesh flood risk mapping of the Reni Town has been done in line 

with the EU Flood Risk Directive as a step to an integrated flood risk management plan for the 

Danube-Liman Sub-basin. The study was prepared in the framework of the Ukrainian-Flemish project 

“Building capacities for effective flood risk management in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta” 

(http://crs.org.ua/en/projects/current/114.html). 

Reni flash flood 2005 

5 Creating Forums for Exchange of Expert Knowledge 

5.1 Document on Coordination aspects of EFD implementation in the Danube River Basin 

The ICPDR has commenced the work on preparation of a Concept paper in support of the 

implementation of the Directive 2007/60/EC in the Danube River Basin. The aim of this document is 

to address the fundamental tasks of the implementation of EFD at the Danube River Basin-wide level 



(level A) and to describe the key aspects of a coordinated approach to be applied during this joint 

implementation exercise. The ICPDR Contracting Parties will follow the principles and methodologies 

described in the concept paper to make sure that a harmonized reporting is provided at the level A. 

The Concept Paper is a living document to be regularly updated based on the experience of the 

Danube countries in EFD implementation and also using the outcomes from the WFD CIS Working 

Group on Floods of the European Commission. 

5.2 Other information sources 

A web-based info exchange platform has been developed on DANUBIS, covering 

• thematic collection of information related to DRB FAP targets 

• links to Rhine, Elbe/Labe and Oder/Odra Commission web-site 

• links to EU flood related R&D projects websites 

• links to national websites – given in the Floods fact sheet 

• DRB List of the online discharge/stage gauging stations’ web-pages 

The EU flood related R&D projects websites can serve as an additional information source. The 6 th EU 

Framework project FLOODSITE on Integrated Flood Risk Analysis and Management Methodologies 

(http://www.floodsite.net) provides interdisciplinary integrating expertise from across the physical, 

environmental and social sciences, as well as spatial planning and management related to flood 

protection and mitigation. 

The hydrological co-operation of the countries sharing the Danube Catchment under the auspices of 

the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) of UNESCO resulted in 1986 in issuing the Danube 

Monograph and additional eleven thematic follow-up volumes have been compiled and issued until 

2005. All these published documents contain valuable hydrological data that can be used in planning, 

drafting and designing the structural and non-structural flood protection measures. 

6 Recommendation for a common approach in 

assessment of flood-prone areas and evaluation of 

flood risk 

6.1 Status review and report of flood mapping and flood risk evaluation in the sub-basins and 

countries of the Danube River Basin 

In 2005 the ICPDR cooperated with the EEA in frame of the Neighbourhood project developing a 

questionnaire on flood mapping methodologies in the Danube River Basin. The questionnaires were 

completed by the FP EG members and using these results Hungary prepared a summary/status review 

on flood mapping and flood risk evaluation in the sub-basins and countries of the Danube River Basin, 

which is available on the ICPDR website. 



6.2 Minimum recommendations for flood risk mapping in the Danube River Basin 

Development of flood risk maps is one of key prerequisites to an efficient flood risk management. 

Risk maps provide essential information to the public but are also important tools for planning 

authorities and the insurance industry. The flood risk maps should increase public awareness of the 

areas at risk of flooding, should provide information of areas at risk by defining flood risk zones to 

give input to spatial planning and should support the processes of prioritising, justifying and targeting 

investments in order to manage and reduce the risk to people, property and the environment. 

That is why the ICPDR decided to organize a Flood Risk Mapping Workshop on 12-13 September 

2007 in Budapest, which provided an overview of the flood risk mapping methodologies currently in 

use in the Danube River Basin and formulated the minimum recommendations for flood risk mapping 

in the Danube River Basin. The objectives of the workshop were to: 

• receive a substantial input to the process of achieving a common approach on flood hazard 

and risk assessment and mapping in the Danube River Basin with due regard to Flood 

Directive requirements: preliminary flood risk assessment – flood hazard mapping – flood 

risk mapping. 

• focus on a comparative overview of available methodologies, harmonisation of the outcomes 

and provision of a kind of guide for preparation of terms of references to support elaboration 

of tender documents which will be needed in the public procurement processes at the 

national/regional level. 

• bring an information on survey and mapping techniques providing digital maps and elevation 

models, on the individual and combined impact of uncertainties of mapping methodologies, 

river and overland flow modelling in flood hazard mapping as well as in modelling the 

elements of flood risks (population, land uses and economic activities, ecologic and cultural 

values and the vulnerability of all these elements, etc.) 

Participants of the Workshop highly appreciated the quality of the workshop that has substantially 

contributed even to the finalization of the EXCIMAP Guide of good practices in flood mapping as 

well. Based on the discussion at the workshop the FP EG formulated the minimum recommendations 

for flood risk mapping in the Danube River Basin, which were adopted by the ICPDR in December 

2007 and are available on the ICPDR website. 

6.3 FLOODRISK project 

The Danube FLOODRISK is a three-year project focusing on the most cost-effective measures for 

flood risk reduction: risk assessment, risk mapping, involvement of stakeholders, risk reduction by 

adequate spatial planning. The project brings together scientists, public servants, NGOs and 

stakeholders who develop jointly a scalable system of flood risk maps for the Danube River 

floodplains. Transnational methodology and models will be defined and implemented for flood risk 

assessment and mapping. This results in proposals for flood mitigation measures, adjustments of 

spatial development plans, assessment tools for economic development in flood plains and raised 

awareness of flood risk of stakeholders, politicians, planners and the public. Infrastructures at risk like 

industry, power stations and supply infrastructure will be considered in the project. 

The overall objective of the FLOODRISK project is to develop and produce high quality, stakeholder 

oriented flood risk maps for the transnational Danube river floodplains to provide adequate risk 

information for spatial planning and economic requests. Risk information is the basis for sustainable 

development along the Danube River. The key objective will only be reached by intensive 

transnational cooperation and stakeholder integration. The goal is to link scientific progress in 

harmonization of approaches and data with practically oriented stakeholder and end user involvement. 



Vertical and horizontal cooperation are the two pillars of the project. The project’s single objectives 

are: 

• Development of a joint mapping method for flood risk and harmonization of data sources. 

• Production and provision of risk maps and risk information. 

• Integration of relevant stakeholders and users on different levels into the definition and 

realization processes. 

• Involvement of different economic aspects of land use in the river basin like spatial planning, 

recreation and agriculture as well as energy supply or health service. 

• Linkage of flood risk mapping and provision of maps as basis for planning, e.g. within the EU 

Floods Directive. 

• Development and distribution of exemplary procedures within the Danube countries and 

beyond. 

• Reflection of the EU Directives, e.g. WFD, Floods Directive, providing feedback based on the 

experiences of the project cooperation by using the platform of the ICPDR Flood Protection 

Expert Group. 

The project contributes with these objectives to the improvement of the institutional cooperation of the 

ICPDR and further towards the realization of measures within the existing international cooperation 

structure. It supports decisions for investments on political and administrative levels by allowing the 

assessment of investments and land use decisions taking into account the Joint Program of Measures, 

based on the risk reduction aspects. 

7 Other activities 

7.1 Danube 2006 floods report 

The winter 2005/2006 in the Danube River Basin was exceptional with the temperatures from 

November to March being below a multiannual average. In addition, large water amounts had been 

accumulated in the snow cover in the Danube region as a result of several cycles of an intense 

snowfall. A rapid increase of daily air temperatures in the end of March 2006 caused snowmelt, which 

along with an intensive rainfall and still frozen soil cover caused a fast surface runoff. In consequence, 

massive springtime floods occurred in a large area of the Danube River basin including certain parts of 

the Upper Danube (e.g. Morava river basin) and, primarily, the Central (Tisza, Sava) and Lower 

Danube. A very rare coincidence of relatively large floods in the sub-basins of Upper Danube as well 

as those of Tisza, Sava and Velika Morava caused a very serious 100-year flood situation along more 

than thousand kilometers of the Danube River starting from the Morava mouth to the southern tip of 

the Csepel Island in Hungary, downstream the Tisza mouth in Serbia and on the whole Romanian part 

of the Danube, where historical flows and water levels were registered. The extent of floods in 

Romania was the largest in the last hundred years. During the period of April 12-25 the registered 

flows in Romania recorded maximum values of 15,600-15,800 m3/s, similar to those in the year 1895. 

Rather unusual was a long duration of a high flood alert on the Danube downstream of the Iron Gate 

lasting more than 6 weeks. 



The following sub basins were very seriously affected by the floods: Paar (Bavaria), Morava (Austria, 

Czech Republic), Vah (Slovakia), Tisza (Hungary, Romania, Serbia), Jiu (Romania) and Danube in 

Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. 

Spring floods in 2006 caused minimum casualties mostly thank to efficient flood protection, 

preparedness and mitigation. Thousands of people were involved in the emergency operations. Flood 

warning and forecasting proved to be one of the key factors of an integral flood protection and 

provided valuable information both on the national level as well as on the basin-wide scale (Danube 

EFAS). The estimated total costs of damages and related emergency operations exceeded 600 millions 

EUR. 

The 2006 flood defence actions however revealed also a number of general and operational 

deficiencies and served as a good test of warning, protection, preparedness and mitigation actions. 

Therefore, the ICPDR agreed to evaluate this flood event not only with the aim to assess its specific 

hydrological characteristics, but also to analyze the overall preparedness and the measures taken at the 

national level with the view of highlighting the lessons that could be learned to prevent or minimize 

the extent of damages in future. A result of this evaluation is a report providing an overview of 

different aspects of the spring 2006 flood event including the lessons learned, which are a good and 

useful source of hints for improvement of flood risk management in the Danube River Basin. The 

report has been published in 2008. 

7.2 Flood factsheet 2010 

A fact sheet for public informing on publishing 

of the action plans for 17 sub-basins of the 

Danube was published by the Secretariat. The 

document highlights the importance of the plans 

in the context of the ICPDR activities 

concerning the implementation of the ICPDR 

Action Programme on Sustainable Flood 

Protection in the Danube River Basin as well as 

of the European Floods Directive. 



8 Conclusions 

The implementation of ICPDR Action Programme on Sustainable Flood Protection in the Danube 

River Basin reached the key milestone – publishing of flood action plans for 17 sub-basins of the 

Danube. The set of 17 plans represents a unique technical planning document that provides, for the 

first time, a broad overview of the measures all Danube countries will be taking to keep their citizens 

safe against the danger of floods. They are a major contribution to the finalising of flood risk 

management plans by 2015 as required by the EFD and signify the excellent basin-wide cooperation 

that exists in flood protection, prevention and mitigation. 

The Danube part of the European Flood Alert System (EFAS) has been developed at the EC Joint 

Research Centre (JRC) with support of the national meteorological services and national hydrological 

services. The Danube EFAS was launched into operation in December 2007. Operation of the system 

enables the Danube countries receiving EFAS information in form of early flood warning reports for 

floods in the next 3-10 days. This tool complements the national forecasting systems and provides the 

forecasters with an additional information helpful for decision-making on issuing a flood warning. 

EFAS-Danube members have 24/7 access to a protected web-server where the twice-daily EFAS 

forecasts can be examined and viewed. 

Development of flood risk maps is one of key prerequisites to an efficient flood risk management. 

Risk maps provide essential information to the public but are also important tools for planning 

authorities and the insurance industry. In 2007 the ICPDR formulated the minimum recommendations 

for flood risk mapping in the Danube River Basin. At present, the EU funded project “Danube 

FLOODRISK” aims to develop uniform flood risk maps that define flood hazards and vulnerability 

will form the basis for targeting measures and reducing flood damage in the Danube Basin. Begun as 

an initiative of the Romanian ICPDR Presidency in 2007, the project will meet requirements of the EU 

European Flood Risk Directive to draw up flood risk maps for areas at risk by 2013. The 

FLOODRISK project will be completed by the end of 2012 under the leadership of the Romanian 

Environment Ministry, with the involvement of all Danube countries. 

Having completed the flood action plans in sub-basins the ICPDR now concentrates fully on the 

concerted implementation of the European Floods Directive on the basin-wide level. The next step 

will be reporting on the preliminary flood risk assessment according to the Article 4 EFD in 2011- 

2012. 

The efforts taken by the ICPDR in the sector of flood protection are an efficient response to the flood 

events frequently occurring in the Danube River Basin in recent years. Taking into account the 

expected impacts of the climate change in future the need for a close cooperation of the ICPDR 

Contracting Parties in flood protection, prevention and mitigation is essential for ensuring the safety 

for human health and property and for the sustainable development in the Danube River Basin in line 

with the Danube Strategy.

OM 13 - 3.1 ROA FAP 2010 v2-1.pdf - ICPDR

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