Final presentation of the Project "Continuation of implementation of the pilot project and capacity building for flood forecasting - Sava from Sisak to the border with Republic of Serbia“

As a final activity of the project "Continuation of activities on establishing systems for flood forecasting on the Sava River catchment in Croatia" contracted with the Croatian Waters and DHMZ, on 05.12.2016 the final presentation of the project was held in the premises of Croatian Waters in Zagreb with developed hydrologic-hydraulic mathematical model of the Sava river and forecasting system for forecasting flood waves in real time on the entire section of the Sava river in Croatia.

With the participation of the highest representatives of the Croatian Waters, DHMZ, Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection, the presentation was also attended by representatives of key institutions from Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the Federation and Republika Srpska: Agency for the Sava River Basin Sarajevo (AVPS), Federal Hydrometeorological Institute (FHMZ) Sarajevo, Serbian Waters (JUVS) Bijeljina, Agency for water area of the Adriatic sea, without whose participation in the project the model would not be complete nor had the necessary quality.

For the first time in the practice of the Croatian Waters, a comprehensive prognostic - hydrologic - hydraulic mathematical model has been developed, which is able to simulate non-stationary flow in rivers and channels and forecast water levels and discharge of flood waves at 144 prognostic profiles on the Sava river in Croatia, based on measured physical parameters in real time.
The project was made completely by the consortium Proning Dhi and DHI. An integral part of the project was also a capacity building through conducting 4 one-week workshops for employees of HV and DHMZ through which the transfer of knowledge required for the simulation of flow and preparation of forecasts has been implemented.

The forecasting model is robust and stable and as such adjusted to work in on-line mode for the purpose of creating forecasting flood waves on the entire Sava catchment in Croatia. Model calibration and verification was conducted on set of historical measured data, which additionally highlighted the need for further measurements of hydrological parameters and field surveying and LIDAR recording, and generally further required work on collection of quality data for providing better model reliability.

The forecasting model will be used for developing a joint system for flood forecasting on Sava catchment, which will be implemented by the International Commission for the Sava River catchment through the international project "Establishment of flood forecasting system and early warning on the Sava River Catchment" as already used for a similar project for Una and Sana rivers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.