📋 Tender Overview
Last week, a working meeting was held in Vienna within the framework of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River, aimed at discussing the hydromorphological status of watercourses. It was attended by experts from 12 Danube countries. The meeting was attended by experts from 12 Danube countries, who agreed on a unified approach to the assessment of the hydromorphological status of the Danube River and its main tributaries.The latter represents an important starting point for the further uniform preparation of national and international water management plans, within the framework of which measures are designed to prevent the deterioration or improvement of the hydromorphological state of watercourses. The hydromorphological state of watercourses and consequently their ecological state in Slovenia has been significantly changed due to numerous anthropogenic interventions or so-called hydromorphological pressures. These include, in particular, large water abstractions, dams, pulsating flows due to the operation of hydroelectric power plants, transverse structures, riverbed regulation and changed use of the riparian zone. Due to these impacts, as many as 40% of surface water bodies are assessed as only moderate, poor or very poor. Hydromorphological pressures represent one of the main threats to the water environment in the Danube region and more widely in Europe and the world. Research shows that climate change, which is also reflected in the form of extreme floods and droughts, will have the greatest consequences precisely in anthropogenically modified water environments, where the hydromorphological state has already been changed. The unified assessment of the status of watercourses in the Danube is one of the key activities of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR). Within the framework of the Joint Danube Survey, countries cooperate with their national experts in assessing the ecological and chemical status of watercourses at selected source sites along the Danube and its main tributaries. This year is the fifth such survey, which for the first time also includes a comprehensive assessment of the hydromorphological status. Within the framework of the Hydromorphology Working Group (ICPDR HYMO TG), a common methodology for assessing the hydromorphological status was developed for the needs of the Joint Danube Survey, which was also prepared in close cooperation with the European development project Danube Sediment_Q2, in which Slovenian project partners (IzVRS, ARSO and DRSV) also participate. This methodology will be used this year at a total of 49 monitoring sites along the Danube, including on the Sava River in Slovenia. The unified assessment of the hydromorphological state of the Danube River Basin represents an important starting point for further joint planning of water management, as it has been shown that cross-border planning is of key importance for comprehensively addressing the challenges brought about by environmental changes. Many Danube countries are increasingly drawing attention to the negative consequences of anthropogenic interventions in the water environment, which are reflected not only in the poor ecological state of watercourses, but also in the reduced climate resilience of river basins and, consequently, increasing damage caused by floods and droughts. The integration of the hydromorphological state of watercourses and the further implementation of nature-based solutions, including the implementation of the principle of "water gives more space", must therefore become an increasingly important segment of comprehensive water management. Participants of the working meeting on the hydromorphological state of watercourses 1 / 3
