One year ago, it was just a huge pile of unsorted data: Tens of thousands of bits of data – be it hand-drawn cross-sections, measurements from sediment monitoring stations or from joint measurement campaigns, shapefiles on different pressures or current and historical maps of the Danube River. All this data had to be collected and transferred to the work package leaders.

At the last project meeting, held June 5th and 6th 2018 in Vienna, the work package leaders were able to offer an idea of what we have; step by step the data is examined and combined to give a first picture of the sediment regime in the Danube. What does it tell us about the mean annual sediment load? What sections of the river are characterized by erosion? Which by deposition?  

Still not all the pieces fit; some data gaps need to be filled; some data collection methods must be discussed and the picture needs to be compared to other pictures. There is no clear answer to all questions and many of the presented maps and graphs show gaps and uncertainties question for certain sections.

The Vienna project meeting was a great opportunity to discuss not only the steps towards data harmonization but also to take a look at the results from the point of view of the countries and from different stakeholders (ASPs) that participated in the meeting. The work packages leaders took a big step in establishing new links between different work packages and fit together bigger pieces of the puzzle to get a clearer picture of the upcoming activities and deliverables.

Photo credits: Philipp Gmeiner / IWHW BOKU