2010-2012, Tisa Basin, Central Europe Commissioned by VATI Contact: Hedwig van Delden

In the Tisa basin anthropogenic interventions affect land-use, water use, and ecosystems and may compromise the development potential of the whole catchment area. The area faces complex challenges of economic, social, and environmental character, which need transnational cooperation for sustainable solutions.

The river Tisa, a tributary to the Danube drains a territory of almost 158 000 km2 in Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Serbia. The purpose of the Tisa Catchment Area Development project (TICAD) is to bring together national, regional and local authorities and planning institutes from each of the five countries. This transnational cooperation is essential to solve socio-economic as well as biophysical problems in the catchment. Within the TICAD project RIKS and DHI will develop together the TICAD SDSS. Because water related issues and land use are thoroughly intertwined in the Tisa catchment, an integrated approach is required for the exploration of future developments. Therefore the system will include the Metronamica land use model and the MIKE SHE hydrological model, which will be integrated using the Geonamica software platform. The system will be developed in close collaboration with the prospective users from the participating countries. In the second phase of the project these users –who are working at various administrations involved in the management of the Tisa basin– will be trained to get a thorough understanding of the system so that they can use the system in their own organization for the assessment of spatial plans and policy measures.