Reflections from the 2026 General Assembly in Hungary

Our 4th General Assembly got underway last week at Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME). This is an important annual opportunity to get together to chart progress, refine our leading edges and identify our key pathways forward.

All photos copyright DANUBE4all/E.Fitzgerald

We opened with a welcome message from László Balatonyi, who joined us from EUSDR. László highlighted the importance of basin-wide, integrated planning as a principle that sits at the core of EUSDR priorities. He also emphasised the strength and resilience of the Danube community, and its long-standing professional relationships and cross-project collaboration, as key to building real and impactful synergies that can benefit the basin as a whole. Lead project coordinator, Helmut Habersack of BOKU, Vienna, focused attention on the final 18 months of our ambitious project and laid out key directions for the road ahead.

Working Group (WP) updates

Over the course of the 3 days together, attendees explored the scientific, technical and communicative pathways to our project outcomes through group sessions, workshops and presentation. All working groups (Work Packages/WPs) fed back their progress over the year, and growth areas going forward were outlined and discussed.

Copyright DANUBE4all/E.Fitzgerald & M.Smederevac-Lalić

WP1 project manager, Allison O'Reilly (BOKU), updated on the administrative and financial progress of the project through the second review period before the Communications, Dissemination and Exploitation team from UCC/GWPCEE (Eimear Fitzgerald/Primoz Skrt) presented progress on key KPI's this year as well as opening discussions on upcoming tasks, including a series of educational factsheets and policy briefs. WP2 partners at BME (Marcell Szabó-Mészáros) and Deltares (Ellis Penning) focused on feedback to their River Connectivity Toolbox, before breaking out into discussions on the continuing work on abiotic and other assessments at the project Demonstration Sites.

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Marija Smederevac-Lalić (IMSI) presented ongoing work in WP3 around the Transboundary Biodiversity Monitoring Scheme and opened enquiry into possibilities for implementation of post-monitoring of fish and biota assessments at the Demo sites. WP4, led by Martin Pusch IGB Berlin, presented results of the ecosystem service assessment and how these might feed into the Danube Ecosystem Service Atlas (DANESA) tool in WP7.

Sandra de Vries of Pulsaqua presented WP5's recent citizen science outputs, including the Local Action Guide and Local Action Academy - also showcasing a copy of the forthcoming Danube River Walk Guide, a fantastic resource produced in collaboration with Li An Phoa of Drinkable Rivers. Sandra, along with Pulsaqua colleagues Camille Janssen, Grace Saville, Ruby Noble and WP5 co-lead, Felix Gajdusek (ZSI), then facilitated an interactive workshop trialling both the Local Action Guide and the Local Action Academy. The hunt for stickers in the team exercise definately brought out some competitive streaks!

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WP6 updated on work at our three project Demonstration Sites. Ground has recently been broken at our Upper Danube site in Donau-Auen National Park outside Vienna. Clearing work to the groyne structure at the Middle Danube site has taken place and the planned removal of sections of the structure is anticipated during the summer. Stakeholder engagement and preparatory technical work towards the commencement of measures at the Razelm-Sinoe Lagoon System/Lower Delta site are continuing.

Will Ries and Michael Krapesch from the Institute of Hydrology and Water Management at BOKU took the opportunity to road-test their GIS problem assignment tool as part of WP7. The finished tool will allow river management experts to assign problems to a river segment and produce an automatically generated list of restoration measures, helping to direct decision-making and planning towards the most effective and practical solution for a particular segment.

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A wide-ranging discussion around the overarching product of DANUBE4all - the Danube Restoration Action Plan - was also held. This document is the focal point for the project and will provide key ecological, social and economic pathways for scalable, replicable river restoration, as initiated and demonstrated through the work of DANUBE4all.

Progress in our Associated Region projects

Copyright DANUBE4all. Pictured L-R: Eleftheria Kampa (Ecologic Institute/D4all), Allison Reilly (BOKU/D4all), Ewa Weder and Dorota Olga Ossowska of Kujawsko-Pomorskiego Municipality (Polish Assoc. Region), Ana Brito of MARE-FCUL (Portuguese Assoc Region), Helmut Habersack (BOKU/D4all), Lenka Procházková (Czech Assoc. Region), Adrian Stanica (GeoEcoMar/D4all), Wojtek Szpociński (Czech Assoc. Region).

Our Associated Region projects joined us to share progress, challenges, and next steps across their regional watershed restoration projects.

💧 Turkey: Lower Seyhan Restoration Lab (Adana Province). Led by Seyhan Municipality, the project brings together local partners and NGOs to use participatory tools such as living labs to co-develop restoration solutions for a heavily urbanised river section, benefiting both nature and the community.

🌿 Portugal: Tagus Estuary, Seixal Municipality. This project seeks to address erosion, hydrodynamic, pollution, and climate change impacts through wetland restoration, citizen science, and public awareness initiatives.

🔬 Poland: Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region. Building a “Water Wise Community” with scientific collaboration and citizen science as part of wider stakeholder engagement processes to improve water management.

🌊 Czech Republic: Jindřichův Hradec. Advancing water quality monitoring and exploring remote sensing possibilities in the Vajgar pond system, alongside planning future restoration pathways.

Together, these projects - alongside our Assoc. Region project in Cahul District, Moldova - are showing how science, innovation, and community engagement can work together regionally toward our shared water challenges.

Field trip to Middle Danube restoration site

Wednesday provided the most perfect, sunny weather to visit our Middle Demonstration restoration site in Duna-Ipoly National Park, north of Budapest. Arriving at the site after several rounds of boat transfer, the trees, golden sands, blue skies and calm waters felt more like being on a desert island than a river bank! The Danube is a constant wonder.

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Here, the project's ecological interventions to two groynes (river bank protection structures) will improve the structural diversity of the river section, increase biodiversity, protect shallow waters against wave stress, and provide a nursery for rheophilic fish species (i.e. fish that thrive in fast-moving waters) such as the Common Nase.

Thank you to staff from Duna-Ipoly National Park Directorate for facilitating our visit and to hydrobiologist, Béla Csányi, for unpacking the rich stories buried in the sediments and carried on the currents of this special place.

It is powerful to see tangible progress in action and to witness our extensive, cooperative effort to produce scalable, nature-based river restoration solutions for the Danube coming to life!

Many thanks to our partners who were able to attend in Budapest and also those who joined online - your presence was much appreciated. Last, but certainly not least - heartfelt thanks to our fantastic colleagues Marcell Szabó-Mészáros, Sándor Baranya, Barbara Kéri and their team at BME for such a warm welcome and wonderful event organisation. 💙