Joint Adaptation and Mitigation Measures to Climate Change Supporting Integrated Water Management on the Tisa River

By now it is widely accepted that due to global warming, precipitation and evapotranspiration patterns will change in the cross-border region of Hungary and Serbia, resulting in a more dynamic hydrological cycle. Consequently, an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events is expected, affecting various aspects of human life.
Weather extremes and related flood and drought events have become a significant threat to communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems in the Tisa/Tisza River Basin. These call for joint action to tackle the current challenges water management faces. The ADAPTisa project develops continuous, data-driven cooperation between water and disaster managers in the Hungary-Serbia cross-border region, focusing on mitigating hydrological risks and improving the region’s adaptation capacity and resilience.

In order to reduce climate change-related risks, primarily flood and drought, four main coherent outcomes are planned, which effectively contribute to the improvement of the risk prevention and disaster management systems and to the increase the climate change resilience of the border region:

• a database and hydraulic model that directly provides the basis for flood and low water level forecasting and early warning, furthermore, they will provide important input for developing adaptation and mitigation measures related to floods (Outcome 2) and low water periods (Outcome 3).
• The ’Measures for improved flood risk reduction and mitigation’ aims to improve flood safety and to plan potential solutions for improving flood management and risk reduction.
• The multi-level water retention and aquifer recharge system will outline effective solutions to improve the climate change adaptation capacities of water management including Nature-based Solutions.
• The final outcome, ’Integrated Water Management Platform’ aims to develop solutions and protocols for flood and low water management based on the project result and improve the coordination and reaction capabilities of organizations involved in disaster management. Besides, joint campaigns addressing the general population, inhabitants as well as agricultural producers will be organized to present the effects of climate change and measures to mitigate its negative effects.