Danube STREAM: service without compromises

Danube STREAM, comprising of 9 partners from 7 countries in the Danube region, started its 2.5 year implementation in January 2017 successfully. The project brings together the Danube waterway administrations in order to improve common standards and tools for sustainable and effective waterway management as well as transnational user-oriented information services.

A Kick-off meeting was held on 8th March in Budapest, where about 40 stakeholders participated and provided their points of view, including the Associated Strategic Partners. At this occasion, also the existing Service Level Agreements were discussed in order to identify needed improvements

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Project partners:

viadonau (Lead Partner - Austria)
SVP (Slovakia)
OVF (Hungary)
RSOE (Hungary)
AVP (Croatia)
AFDJ (Romania)
ACN (Romania)
EAEMDR (Bulgaria)
Plovput (Serbia)

That way, strategies and activities within the project can be closely harmonised in order to ensure sustainable implementation even beyond the project lifetime. The Service Level Agreements closed among the BoD on various topics secure continuity and capitalisation of the project results.

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At the BoD meetings the managing directors of the Danube waterway administrations gathered to perform an analysis of achievements in the last years and thereby renewed their commitment to the implementation of existing services and interrelated service level agreements. Areas for needed improvements were identified and the detailed work programme of DanubeSTREAM was agreed. The BoD set for a common course for the benefit of the Danube waterway

Successful 1st Year Review

As improved service to waterway customers is imperative for the DanubeSTREAM partnership, a large share of efforts in the first project year was dedicated to a critical review of agreed Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The SLAs and performance indicators that had been agreed upon in predecessor projects, were critically reviewed and analysed, in order to identify areas for improvement or increased service levels. Performance indicators range from waterway surveying frequencies to update rates of online information services. These common standards form the basis for all other project activities and were therefore started immediately after the project beginning.

One topical focus in the first project months was laid on the Fairway Information Services (FIS) portal, which is a web platform that provides essential information for navigation on the Danube waterway to its users (www.danubeportal.com). Topical data on shallow water sections, water levels, information on traffic disturbances, ice reports etcetera are provided through this online platform. All efforts in the first project period were aimed at the increase of usability and topicality of the information provided. A complete relaunch   of the FIS portal was also prepared, as well as the development of mobile applications. For instance an update of the Austrian Web Service providing actual and predicted water levels in line with the so called Notices to Skippers (NtS) standard 4.0 was specified. As of mid-2018 this feature will enable updated values every 15 minutes. An automatic monitoring unit for the FIS portal was specified jointly by viadonau and RSOE. This monitoring unit will simplify the data quality monitoring on the FIS Portal, as manual monitoring will be substituted to a large extent. Alarms will automatically be generated immediately in case of errors and remedial actions to restore the functionality can be taken as soon as possible. A web service for automated bottleneck Information has been specified as well.

Another focus in the first period was laid on establishing environmentally sustainable strategies for waterway management, which were discussed together with navigation and environmental experts at a joint seminar with DANUBEparksCONNECTED in Dunakiliti in the spring of 2017. This will be the basis for national strategy documents and further expert exchange within and beyond the project. The final result of this dedicated activity will be summarised in a good practice report on environmentally sustainable waterway management procedures, which will allow waterway manager to create projects that will both lead to good navigation and to good ecological status. Good practices delivered by all partners across the Danube region have already demonstrated that this is not a mere phantasy, but can materialise, provided that intensive coordination is taking place between the involved stakeholders.