SIMONA - TRAINING AND SEDIMENT SAMPLING IN THE SOUTH DANUBE TEST AREA AND RESERVOIRS IN SERBIA (07-09.09.2020)

In the period from 07.09.2020 to 09.09.2020 a Working Meeting was held under the SIMONA Project (INTERREG Danube Program) in the frame of WP 3 and WP 6 and joint sampling of sediments from the South Danube Test Area and reservoirs.

The Working Meeting was held in Bor on 07.09.2020 and organized and led by Prof. Dr. Prv. Marjanovic, head of Work Package 6 (Jaroslav Cherni Institute of Water Management, Belgrade). Corr. Member Prof. Dr. Vladica Cvetkovic and Prof. Dr. Kr. Saric from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mining and Geology), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zl. Milakovska and Assoc. Prof. Dr. At. Hikov from Geological Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Dragica Vulic, Dragan Aleksiс and Marko Marjanovic (Jaroslav Cherni Institute of Water Management, Belgrade) participated in the meeting. The Working meeting included lectures on methods for sediment sampling from the river and artificial reservoirs, characteristics of the types of sampling equipment, methods for sediment sample storage, and study.

The joint sampling of bottom sediments, suspended matter, and sediments from flood planes from the Southern Danube Test Area, conducted on 08.09.2020 includes 1 – Monitoring point Borska Reka River (Fig. 1); 2 - Monitoring point Timok River (Fig. 2) which is common to Serbia and Bulgaria. On 09.09.2020 the hosts from Jaroslav Cherni Institute of Water Management, Belgrade demonstrated all stages of sampling of bottom sediments from an artificial reservoir with grab (Fig. 3) and core (Fig. 4) samplers from Djerdap Dam / Iron Gate, near the town of Donji Milanovac.

http://dtp.interreg-danube.eu/news-and-events/project-news/5649

SIMONA - SAMPLING OF THE 3 TEST AREAS COMPLETED IN PERIOD 5

The purpose of the SIMONA test area sampling actions was to test our SIMONA sampling protocol. The Drava WG completed the sampling at the Drava Test Area in the first half of August. The SIMONA scientific coordinator, dr. Gyozo Jordan developed the documentation on sampling methodology in the Drava and circulated it among partners, to help support their fieldwork in the other two test areas: Upper Tisa and South Danube. All 3 test area sampling actions were successfully completed by the end of period 5, together with the appropriate sampling reports containing the sampling methodology description, photo documentation, and field observation sheets.

http://dtp.interreg-danube.eu/news-and-events/project-news/5635

SIMONA - SCOM MEETING FOR PERIOD 5 HELD ONLINE, 26.10

On the 26th of October, the SIMONA SCOM meeting for Period 5 was held online. Besides the SIMONA management team and WP leaders, the participants of the meeting were also the members of Sampling and Laboratory WG. After the project manager presented the current status of the project at the end of period 5, she also pointed out the need for project prolongation. In the last month of period 5, the test area WG managed to complete the test areas sampling in spite of the still ongoing traveling restrictions. Nevertheless, not enough time was left to achieve the rest of the activities from Period 5, so they had to be postponed to Period 6. At the meeting, we discussed our plans for the execution of training events and most of the participants agreed it will have to be in online forms. The topic of DRB Baseline network National site sampling and laboratory analysis was brought up for discussion and the PPs were informed about the current status of Inventory of National laboratories and equipment per partner countries. Lastly, we discussed the budget status and the new SIMONA timeline for period 6, proposed by the project management team. The project partners were advised to start working on the reporting and make only minor changes in their project activities or budget until January/February when we will apply for the procedure of project prolongation.

http://dtp.interreg-danube.eu/news-and-events/project-news/5632

SIMONA - LP SI-GEOZS AND HR-HGI-CGS VISIT THE SIMONA REFERENCE LABORATORY

On 1st October 2020, the LP communication manager Kristina Koret and geochemist Teja Čeru, together with the Croatian SIMONA partners Ivan Mišur and Danijel Ivanišević, visited the SIMONA reference laboratory Balint Analitika Ltd. The purpose of this visit was to get familiar with the work of the Balint Analitika lab and to the team pursuing the chemical analysis of the SIMONA project Test Area sediment samples. The head of the laboratory, dr. Maria Balint, couldn’t participate in this meeting, but Balint`s Sampling group leader Zoltan Vilagosi and the SIMONA project scientific coordinator Gyozo Jordan presented the work of the SIMONA reference laboratory in general as well as the status of the chemical analysis of our sediment samples. We used this opportunity to discuss in person the laboratory analysis methods and techniques applied to the Drava Test Area sediment samples and how to best harmonize this methodology to the remaining test area samples.

http://dtp.interreg-danube.eu/news-and-events/project-news/5494

SIMONA - PROJECT MANAGEMENT TEAM ACTIVELY ENDORSING ONLINE MEETINGS

The SIMONA project management team is recently faced with the replacement of the project manager. The new project manager, dr. Meta Dobnikar joined the team, as well as dr. Teja Čeru who will provide the scientific/geochemical support to the project. The new SIMONA members adapted quickly to the project`s challenges under the current circumstances caused mostly by the Coronavirus. In these specific circumstances arose the need for thorough management and organizational project activities. Almost entire September, the SIMONA Lead Partner team is endorsing online meetings with project partners (mostly WPLs) with a purpose to discuss the current status of certain WP activities implementation, as well as the possible need for project prolongation. A couple of more SIMONA management team meetings had followed on the topic of project prolongation, from which the most fruitful one was with project officer. The project officer gave us guidelines and advice on how to carry out the project prolongation procedure as smooth as possible. With this new knowledge and project insights, we are moving towards the end of Period 5, when we will slowly start to plan the project prolongation with the support of our WPLs and lastly entire project consortium

SIMONA - HR-HGI-CGS PARTICIPATED AT THE 13TH INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC/PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCE AGRICULTURE IN NATURE AND ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION 7TH– 9TH, SEPTEMBER 2020, OSIJEK, CROATIA

The HGI-CGS SIMONA team participated at the 13th International Scientific/Professional Conference AGRICULTURE IN NATURE AND ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION, which was held in Osijek (Croatia) in the period from 7th to 9th of September 2020. Dr.sc. Ajka Šoša, team leader from Croatian Geological Survey, and team member dr.sc. Lidija Galović presented the SIMONA project through poster presentation under the title: TRANSNATIONALLY HARMONIZED SEDIMENT SAMPLING AND LABORATORY PROTOCOLS FOR HSs IN DRB’S SURFACE WATERS PROPOSAL. Roundtable was organized at the conference with a topic concerning an increasingly pressing issue of desertification, land degradation, and drought (DLDD). The keynote speakers were eminent national and foreign experts. The organization of the conference was done according to recommendations for prevention from COVID-19.

SIMONA poster from the conference available at http://dtp.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/simona/documents .

SIMONA - DRAVA TEST AREA SAMPLING ACTION (4-7 AUGUST 2020)

9 SIMONA participants travelled to Harkany in order to discuss and implement the SIMONA sampling methodology in the field, specifically in the Drava Test Area. The participants were our PPs from Slovenia (SI-GEOZS), Hungary (HU-SZIE and HU-OVF) and Austria (AT-AIT) together with our reference laboratory Bálint Analitika representative and our external expert from Environment Agency Austria (EAA). The consequences of COVID_19 outbreak are still felt and thus prevented the participation of all Drava workgroup members. The sampling took place at 9 sampling sites in the vicinity of Harkany and Szigetvár, in the period from 4th until 7th August 2020. During this action, the SIMONA Sediment Sampling Protocol was tested, together with the sampling equipment preselected at the Harkany meeting in July. On the last day of sampling action, the sediment samples were taken to the SIMONA reference laboratory, where it will be processed for laboratory analysis. The next step is developing the laboratory analysis plan. The successful completion of the first test area sampling, out of 3 gives the necessary stimulus for the remaining 2 test area sampling, as well as for the entire SIMONA project implementation struck with the global pandemic. 

SIMONA - TEST AREA SAMPLING HARMONISATION MEETING IN HARKANY

The SIMONA Test Area Sampling Harmonisation Meeting was held on 14th and 15th July, in Harkany. In spite of our efforts to gather all the Test Area WG leaders, our South Danube test area representative from BG-GI-BAS couldn`t join due to COVID limitations. Nevertheless, we managed to gather 11 participants of great importance and have fruitful discussions.  The Drava Test Area was represented by the Drava WGL Gyozo Jordan and his PhD student, Hungarian National Water Authority Zsofia Kovacs, from Austria; Environment Agency Austria was represented by Franko Humer and AT-GBA partner Heinz Reitner and the Lead partner SI-GEOZS was represented by the project`s communication manager. The Upper Tisa Test Area was represented by its WGL Damian Gheroghe and his colleagues Iepure Gheorghe and Zsolt Szakacs. We also hosted two representatives from the SIMONA official reference laboratory - Bálint Analitika Kft., who demonstrated their sampling equipment and expertise on the field. This 2-days meeting, in general, consisted of theoretical and practical part; the theory was discussed in the morning meetings in the Conference Room of Harkany Thermal Hotel and the praxis took place in the field. The practical part comprised the explanation and demonstration of sampling devices brought by the participants in the field site. The testing of different types of sampling equipment for the bottom, suspended and floodplain sediments were done by the Bálint Analitika laboratory technicians, with a few "jump-ins" by the Upper Tisa PPs.The participants also had the opportunity to visit the Barcs Water Authority station for big river sampling. The atmosphere of the meeting was marked by good cooperation and successful discussions among all of the participants, with the goal of achieving the harmonisation of sampling equipment and sampling methodology, soon to be implemented in the Drava Test Area sampling.

SIMONA - PROMOTION VIA INTERREG 30 YEARS PROJECT SLAM

DTP SIMONA Project Lead Partner Communication Manager participated in the call for proposals: Interreg 30 years project Slam, in April, in order to present the SIMONA project using storytelling techniques. The interest this year was very high: over 150 project stories were submitted and the competition was fierce. 30 shortlisted project stories passed the selection to go to the next phase: producing a good video story. Unfortunately, the SIMONA story did not pass the first phase in this competition, but it will be used later in the project for some similar promotional purposes.

SIMONA - PERIOD 5 STATUS & TEST AREA SAMPLING

The SIMONA consortium gathered for an online Skype meeting on 24th of June, to discuss the current status of the project implementation in Period 5 and the Test area sampling activity, after the 1. wave of Corona and considering the modification of the project timeline. The management group had to readjust the entire sampling schedule, as well as the pre-training meeting meant for April. With the WGLs and WP3 leader, we made good interaction and cooperation in the sense of preparing for sediment sampling the best we can regarding the still felt Corona circumstances. The pre-training meeting is now postponed to the middle of July and the test areas sampling activities will follow in August. The national points sampling will be discussed on some later occasion, but hopefully, we will execute both types of sampling activity until the end of Period 5.