Hungary : French-hungarian co-operation programme for water data management 1998 - 1999

Due to its central location in the heart of the Danube basin, it is well known that Hungary developed some very efficient tools for water resource management, particularly for flood control.

With a view to accessing the European Union and applying the future community framework directive, and in the framework of the Hungarian-French cooperation programme, the National Office for Water (OVF) of the Ministry of Transport, Telecommunications and Water IOWater was entrusted with the coordination of a project for the development of an Integrated Water Information System (IWIS).

The programme was implemented along 8 months through exchange of experience between Hungarian experts (National Water Office and VITUKI representatives) and French experts (International Office for Water) successively with:

- A mission to study the existing information systems in Hungary,
- A study tour in France for 5 Hungarian experts for their introduction to the French Water Data Network (RNDE),
- 4 missions of French specialists to Hungary.

The main results obtained were:

- A rich exchange of experiences on techniques for the integrated management of water-related data with the adoption and the start of the implementation, in Hungary, of methods developed in France by RNDE;
- The development of a first conceptual model of IWIS’s hydrological data by combining data models from several systems which already existed in Hungary;
- The formulation of technical terms of reference for the implementation of a "pilot project for the standardisation of procedures for the exchange and management of data on groundwater". This project will enable the use of procedures for managing and exchanging groundwater data in Hungary with the possibility of applying them for the management of an international aquifer, shared with Romania.