Autori: Andreja SUŠNIK, Gregor GREGORIČ, Sandor SZALAI, Sabina BOKAL, Zorica SRĐEVIĆ
ABSTRACT
Droughts hit the Danube region frequently and have had large impacts on the economy and the welfare of people. Drought damages are indirect frequently and are not so explicit like in the case of flood or frost, and, according to some estimations, can be higher than the other natural disasters in the Danube region. Drought is still not considered an issue of high priority, and people are not aware of its impacts. Therefore, DriDanube aims to increase the capacity of the Danube region for drought emergency response and enhance preparedness for drought management by introducing recently developed monitoring and risk assessment tools. One of the main products of the project will be Drought User Service which will enable more accurate and efficient drought information via improved monitoring and timely early warning. The service will integrate all available data, including large volume of the most recent remote sensing products, using modern web services and “Big Data” management techniques. Apart from the timely warning a risk analysis is required to mitigate the effects of drought. Following a transnational approach, DriDanube will harmonize the currently heterogeneous methodologies for risk and impact assessments, based on existing achievements in participating countries and on EU guidelines in the frame of the Civil Protection Mechanism. Users’ capacities at different level in the management cycle (monitoring–impact assessment–response–recovery–preparedness) will be strengthened through sharing experiences and project learning interactions. DriDanube’s main expected results is the Strategy to improve drought emergency response (tested on pilot actions) and better cooperation among operational services and decision-making authorities in a Danube Region.
