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Over-exploitation of water resources, water regime modifications, water contamination, and a growing number of flood events – negative effects of which are amplified by climate change – are all issues that require harmonised, integrated actions from management authorities in countries that share river basins.

The Joint Danube Survey 3 (JDS3) was the world’s biggest river research expedition of its kind in 2013, the UN International Year of Water Cooperation. Its results were published in a comprehensive report in early 2015.

The key purpose of Joint Danube Surveys (JDS) is to produce reliable and comparable information on carefully selected elements of water quality for the length of the Danube River, including its major tributaries. Three Joint Danube Surveys have previously been conducted, in 2001, 2007, 2013, and 2019. The 5th Joint Danube Survey is due to launch on 1st July 2025.

Integrated land development is a key of sustainable resource management and should be tested in a pilot project in Hungary. The outcomes of the project will also be disseminated in Serbia and Romania and should give the principle of integrated land development a boost in the Tisza River Basin.

Projects should have a clear impact on the livelihood of local people - this is especially true for the UNDP/GEF project “Integrating multiple benefits of wetlands and floodplains into improved trans-boundary management for the Tisza River Basin”. This pilot project is currently carried out on the Upper Tisza, in a village literally divided by the Tisza into two countries.

The Bodrog River Basin makes part of the Tisza River Basin and is shared by Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine. Environmental problems and flood damages are increasing and putting pressures on the people - high time for a project of the UNDP / GEF to promote multiple benefits of wetlands and floodplains.

The Tisza Basin has been subject to significant anthropogenic impacts that have resulted in a degraded system, particularly in terms of pollution and the loss of floodplains and wetlands. The present project is focusing on the development of strategies and implementation of demo project to test the multiple environmental benefits of wetlands to mitigate impacts of floods/droughts and help to reduce nutrient pollution.

At the first ministerial meeting of the ICPDR countries held in December 2004, ministers and high-level representatives of the five Tisza countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding, establishing the ICPDR Tisza Group for coordination as well as implementation of an international integrated Tisza River Basin cooperation under the umbrella of the ICPDR. After 15 years of successful cooperation the ICPDR Tisza Group will focus on the implementation of the updated ITRBMP.

JDS 2, the world's biggest river research expedition, was held in 2007. Its goal was to produce comparable and reliable information on water quality and pollution for the Danube and some tributaries. The ICPDR coordinated its implementation. Launched on August 14, 2007 in Germany, three JDS2 boats traveled downstream the Danube, through 10 countries, to the Danube Delta.

Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, Slovakia and Hungary share the responsibility for the Tisza river basin and undertook jointly activities towards the implementation of the EU Water Freamwork Directive and the EU Flood Directive. These efforts were supported by the European Union in the frame of the TISAR 2007 and led to good results.