The Danube Floodplain project partners met one week before Christmas in Munich. It was a technical meeting of the experts involved in hydraulic and habitat modelling as well as in stakeholder engagement to reduce the flood risk in the Danube Floodplain through restoration measures. The meeting, organized by the Chair of Hydrology and River Basin management of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), was attended by representatives of the project partners from all 10 countries involved in the Danube Floodplain project.

There are five pilot areas in the project: Krka (Slovenia), Morava (Czech Republic / Slovakia), Middle Tisza (Hungary), and two pilot areas at the Danube River Begecka Jama (Serbia) and Bistret (Romania). In these areas, the effectivity of comparable floodplain restoration measures to reduce flood risk is tested. At the meeting in Munich, the project partners responsible for the pilot areas presented two restoration scenarios, one “realistic” and another “optimistic”, the latter representing the maximum natural reconstruction potential of the area. The partners will apply hydraulic 2D models to analyse the effect of the different scenarios. First test runs already showed that a flood peak reduction and a reactivation of the floodplains is possible.

Besides that, the effect of the restoration of potential floodplains along the whole Danube River as well as in major tributaries will be assessed by a chain of national hydraulic 1D models. In the Danube Floodplain project, water authorities in the Danube region will evaluate for the first time transboundary effects of flood protection measures using floodplain restoration procedures. Specific national characteristics of the models, the hydrological input data and the modelling procedures were discussed in the meeting.

Furthermore, ecosystem services analysis and habitat modelling will be carried out in the pilot areas. The responsible project partner for these tasks is the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (CUEI) who presented their planned procedure for assessing these ecosystem services. They will apply stakeholder engagement in the pilot areas, which was prepared during a workshop with all partners in the meeting in Munich. Moreover, the process of habitat modelling was described.

In a very collaborative environment, the partners agreed on the hydrological scenarios for 1D and 2D modelling, important further steps, and responsibilities. With the workshop of stakeholder engagement regarding ecosystem services, the project partners of the pilot areas are prepared for their national kick off meetings. With Danube Floodplain the whole Danube basin is interconnected – in this case due to transboundary hydraulic modelling for which this Expert Meeting in Munich set milestones for the further project implementation.