The Danube basin is one of the most diverse river basins in the world, in the sense that it is shared by 17 countries with different cultural, social and economic backgrounds. It is the first time that a basin-wide methodology and modelling system for surface and groundwater accounting will be developed in cooperation with many countries in the Danube River Basin, which will also help to better address water quantity and water management challenges through a common understanding of the water balance of the Danube Basin.

The series of extreme weather-hydrological situations in recent years have highlighted the need for internationally agreed common hydrological monitoring, data management and a modern hydrological model agreed upon by the Danube countries. The Danube River Basin Water Balance project aims to contribute to sustainable, integrated, international water management in the Danube countries. The tangible novelty of the developed project proposal is the long overdue common water balance calculation methodology for the whole Danube basin, which will be tested in transboundary sub-basins for different climate scenarios, combined with expert capacity building.

The proposed work provides several forward-looking responses to the challenges of the current international water management situation:

The project puts a strong emphasis on sector stakeholder involvement and capacity building. This is demonstrated by the fact that the applicant consortium, which covers many countries of the Danube River Basin, consists of 19 participating-implementing partners and 12 other involved partner institution. In addition to the implementation of basic technical data management and modelling steps, a number of online and on-site practical trainings are planned. These will enable the participants involved - not only from the water management sector - to learn about the project results and to learn to use the developed data system and computational procedures in varying degrees of depth, depending on their willingness and skills. A network of researchers and experts is also planned to support mutual knowledge sharing. This participatory and joint problem-solving approach will ensure that water management experts, universities, research institutes and all stakeholders can benefit from the results of the project. The broad partnership and the deep commitment of the expert network will also help to harmonize other ongoing environmental initiatives within the Danube basin with other project partners (International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River Basin - ICPDR, UNESCO International Hydrological Programme - IHP/Danube, waterways and transport, and nature conservation) through consultations.