April 18, 2023 – we started work on the project to monitor the hydrological, hydraulic and morphological characteristics of the Danube River and the inventory of biodiversity components in the joint Croatian-Serbian section of the Danube. The contract was signed on 18 January 2023 between the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure of the Republic of Croatia and the bidding consortium consisting of Oikon Ltd. from Zagreb, Hidroing Ltd. from Osijek and Vodoprivredno-projektni biro plc. from Zagreb, with Oikon as the leading partner.
Under the contract, Oikon is responsible for the inventory of biodiversity components in the project area (benthos, fish and habitats), the inventory of birds in cooperation with the Croatian Society for Bird and Nature Protection, the establishment of a geo-information system, and the management and coordination of the execution of all contracted activities of the bidding consortium.
This monitoring on the Danube on the Croatian-Serbian river section, which will last until July 2024, is an integral part of the comprehensive international EU project “Preparing FAIRway2 works in the Rhine Danube Corridor” under the CEF Call 2014-2020 in the field of transport. The project partners are the Austrian Federal Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (project coordinator is “viadonau” from Vienna), the Serbian Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure (MGSI) and the Croatian Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure (MMPI).
The aim of this monitoring is to create the basis for a joint strategy of Croatia and Serbia to preserve the Danube as an important international waterway. As part of the comprehensive EU project, the Croatian and Serbian partners will redefine priority critical sections for navigation on the common stretch of the Danube and analyse their alternative solutions.
The results of the EU project will be presented in a comprehensive study that will serve for the future joint adaptive management of the Danube in the border area between Croatia and Serbia, enabling the continuous maintenance of the international waterway with the protection of biodiversity and the maintenance of natural flood ecosystem services on both sides of the river.
