One of the most important outputs of the Dareffort project is the common data exchange platform, called EnviroNet. During 2020 it has been developed to serve as the technical basis for DanubeHIS operated by ICPDR. For exchanging hydrological and meteorological data between the countries in Danube catchment via EnviroNet it is essential to merge the different national data in a common format, and transfer them from the national data providers to the platform.

An important requirement for the acceptance of EnviroNet and future DanubeHIS is to find the easiest and most effective way for national data providers to transfer the data to the platform. However, at the same time it has to meet high standards of data availability and quality. Therefore, during the implementation of the software for each national data provider the conversion rules and routines have been defined and elaborated individually. These conversion filters have been delivered together with the required software components of EnviroNet to the national data providers in the second half of 2020. With each data provider web-meetings have been carried out to configure the data transfer to their needs and requirements.

For testing purposes, and to allow the project partners to have a state of the art view on the data available via the EnviroNet platform, a project internal website with an interactive map of the Danube catchment has been created. Initial tests and bug fixes have been carried out to achieve a smooth and flawless operation of the platform.

After these initial tests in September and October last year, this website together with the EnviroNet platform is running now in continuous operation for about 90 day.

During this time data from over 600 hydrological and meteorological measuring stations across Danube catchment is delivered at least on a daily basis, but in most cases hourly to the EnviroNet platform. Figure 1 shows the hydrological stations of the catchment which are currently up and running.

The minimal set of data defined to deliver to DanubeHIS will be the hydrological parameters, such as water level, discharge, and water temperature as well as an important meteorological parameter, precipitation. As an example of a time series collected via EnviroNet (Figure 2) shows the water level for a hydrological station in Budapest, Hungary (Figure 3).

In the time of continuous operation only minor issues occurred which could be fixed in short time. The first three months of operation of the EnviroNet platform show that with the common data exchange concept and software developed in Dareffort project is capable of working in practice in real live conditions. Currently last minor improvements are being made, and the platform is ready to be handed over to ICPDR for the implementation of DanubeHIS.