Serbia and Hungary study the pulse of the Tisza River. The ADAPtisa project brings together researchers, universities and water management organisations from both countries. They share data to create a platform for integrated river basin management in the border region.
The Tisza River, the largest tributary of the Danube, is no calm stream. Climate change has amplified the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts in its basin, which crosses five countries. Two of them, Hungary and Serbia, have decided to share data and work together to better react to these phenomena.
Slobodan Kolaković, associate professor at the University of Novi Sadandcoordinator of ADAPTisa points out that "our goal is to develop an integrated water management platform, let’s say a ‘digital space’, where cross-border experts, institutions and decision makers r can exchange data, forecast risks and coordinate real-time responses. Last but not least, this project brings together key institutions from Serbia and Hungary, universities and public water management companies, to share experience, technology and knowledge and cope with the increasing impact of climate change".
More than sixty volunteers - teachers, university students and citizens - gathered on 16 October in Bečej, Serbia, to collect all visible rubbish along the banks of the river and in the riverbed for a dozen kilometres. This clean-up operation in Serbia is part of the measures implemented by the European interregional project ADAPTisa. According to Kolaković, "When there are big floods, the waves carry a lot of rubbish, and we’ve encountered problems coming from the upper part of the river: the waste comes from Ukraine and Hungary, all the way to Serbia. The waste has caused lot of difficulties on our shores. The aim of these actions is precisely to raise awareness".
At the same time, a group of researchers is taking water samples on the riverbank and in the middle of the Tisza riverbed. They study the water’s qualities, including pH, phthalateand pesticide levels, among others, thanks to a mini portable laboratory funded by the project.
But do litter collection and water testing contribute to better flood prevention? Maja Petrović, coordinator of this activity in the project explains that "every sample we take today, every analysis we do, each kilo of waste we collect will actually be implemented in our water management platform. So, we will try to see if the model we are developing and which we will use in the future for flood prediction is accurate, if it is correct".
Miljan Jovanović, volunteer and resident of the Vojvodina region, has not forgotten the 2006 flood. The river Tisza overflowed its banks and destroyed his old cottage, which fortunately he was able to rebuild with more solid materials. "It was flooded. Only sixty centimetres of roof remained above water. We looked towards Bečej and it looked like the sea. The river bed had disappeared entirely".
Recording the memory of the watercourse is essential for flood management
The ADAPTisa project is based on river monitoring and data transmission to create an integrated management platform for the Tisza river in this region. Public water management platforms in both countries will use it. It will be publicly accessible through the website of the Lower Tisza Regional Water Management Directorate in Szeged, Hungary. Their development uses artificial intelligence to forecast floods and droughts, based on a combination of historical hydrological data, real-time measurements and hydraulic model simulations.
The total budget of ADAPTisa is €1.4 million, of which 85 per cent has been funded by the European Union's Cohesion Policy and the rest by the project partners in both countries.
Whereas in 2006, the Tisza rose more than ten metres, now the level of the river in Szeged is barely one metre. "The drought is extreme," stresses Péter Kozák, head of the Lower Tisza Regional Water Management Directorate (ATIVIZIG). He points out that "with these analyses we will get deeper information about the background of the changes and with this reason, with these devices, we can find the cheapest and the fastest solution, measurements for the restoration of surface water or using a new retention area".
For him the worst-case scenario is the current one: "low rainfall, followed by extremely high temperatures, with high water evaporation and low river flows”.