SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN MULTI-HAZARD EARLY WARNING ADVISORY SYSTEM Assessment of capabilities of the South-East European National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in flood forecasting and warning Final Report 10 October 2019 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Background ................................................................................................................................................... 4 Brief regional summary ................................................................................................................................. 5 South East Europe river basin survey ............................................................................................................ 6 Current state of flood forecasting capabilities in SEE countries ................................................................. 13 Albania ..................................................................................................................................................... 14 Bosnia and Herzegovina .......................................................................................................................... 23 Bulgaria.................................................................................................................................................... 35 Croatia ..................................................................................................................................................... 39 Cyprus ...................................................................................................................................................... 44 Greece ..................................................................................................................................................... 46 Hungary ................................................................................................................................................... 50 Jordan ...................................................................................................................................................... 55 Montenegro ............................................................................................................................................ 59 North Macedonia .................................................................................................................................... 65 Moldova .................................................................................................................................................. 72 Slovenia ................................................................................................................................................... 75 Ukraine .................................................................................................................................................... 77 The pilot river basin ..................................................................................................................................... 81 Recommendations ...................................................................................................................................... 95 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................. 99 References ................................................................................................................................................. 100 Attachments .............................................................................................................................................. 101 Appendix 1. The SEE river basin survey - template ................................................................................... 102 Appendix 2. The SEE river basin survey – observational network table ................................................... 135 Appendix 3. Quick guide to the SEE river basin survey ............................................................................. 136 Appendix 4. Observational networks, proposed by the SEE countries for the SEE-MHEWS-A Project .... 137 2 Albania ................................................................................................................................................... 138 Bosnia and Herzegovina ........................................................................................................................ 156 Bulgaria.................................................................................................................................................. 167 Croatia ................................................................................................................................................... 169 Hungary ................................................................................................................................................. 174 Jordan .................................................................................................................................................... 177 Moldova ................................................................................................................................................ 179 Montenegro .......................................................................................................................................... 183 North Macedonia .................................................................................................................................. 191 Ukraine .................................................................................................................................................. 200 3 Acknowledgements This report has been prepared within the activities of the second phase of the project ‘South-East European Multi-Hazard Early Warning Advisory System (SEE-MHEWS-A)’. The project is funded by the World Bank through the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) of the European Commission. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) coordinates the project activities jointly with the World Bank. The main author of this report is Dr. Yuri Simonov. The author would like to acknowledge the large number of experts from the South-East European National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) for providing comprehensive information about the current state of flood early warning systems in their countries through filling out the river basin survey, as well as sharing additional expertise and knowledge in person communications. Background In 2016, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) initiated the development of a South-East European Multi-Hazard Early Warning Advisory System (SEE-MHEWS-A) with initial support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. Fully developed SEE-MHEWS-A system will support the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in fulfilling their core function: providing timely and accurate forecasts and warnings of hazardous hydrometeorological events in order to reduce loss of lives and other impacts on people, infrastructure and industry. Developed during the 2016-2017 inception phase, the Implementation Plan for SEE-MHEWS-A (SEE- MHEWS-A Implementation Plan, 2008) provides guidelines for the development of the technical components and activities necessary to establish advisory system operations by mid-2023. World Bank through the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and Instrument for Pre- Accession Assistance (IPA) of the European Commission is supporting the second phase of the project (February 2018-December 2020), concentrating on implementing a pilot hydrological modelling system connected to a numerical weather prediction system, forming the basis of the comprehensive operational regional advisory system. During the second phase of the SEE-MHEWS-A project, a pilot hydrological modelling system should be developed for one river basin in the South-East Europe region (SEE). Development of operational flood forecasting and early warning system (flood EWS) at the river basin level requires availability of quality- controlled hydrological and meteorological observational data as well as post-processed high-resolution numerical weather prediction (NWP) model output. An inventory of the available automatic, real-time reporting weather and hydrological observing station network in SEE should be carried out including, which stations could immediately deliver sufficient quality and representative operational data to SEE-MHEWS-A, and whether National Meteorological and Hydrological Services operating these stations are in agreement to submit these data for the purposes of 4 the regional advisory system. The inventory should also include the availability of historical meteorological, hydrological observing stations data needed for hydrological model calibration and validation, as well as required ancillary information (e.g. snow data, reservoir operation policies and data, topography, land cover data, bathymetric/cross sectional data, etc.). The availability of the required data, as well as other considerations should be taken into account in the selection of the river basin from the SEE for setting up the pilot