30 September marks the day of the release of the new Danube Floodplain Online Course.

100% free and accessible to everyone, a new Danube Floodplain Online Course is an incredible opportunity to help you better understand the whole concept of Floodplain management, show you examples of floodplain restoration measures, and explain how to apply tools and knowledge developed by the project itself. A new Online Course aims to deliver the skills and knowledge for better floodplain management. 

GWP CEE Anna Smetanova and Sabina Bokal said about the opening of the course: "Floodplains should be managed better to preserve habitats and improve ecosystem services using integrated approach. We have always seen a need for building capacity in this area and this course is providing us with an opportunity to do exactly that." 

“The Danube Floodplain Online Course is not only a way to learn about an integrative approach on floodplain management, but it is also an opportunity to get more conscious about the effects of floodplain degradation and environmental changes” added Francesca Perosa from Technical University of Munich.

Danube Floodplain project has been driving the development of the course and Razvan Bogzianu and Cristian Rusu from Romania Waters (coordinators of the Danube Floodplain project) said that the “Online Course offers the opportunity to share experience and science in a language accessible to broad categories of people, promoting the results of science in a concrete and tangible way.”

Danube Floodplain online course is timely and fills an important gap towards better floodplain management, also in line with the 2nd Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs), under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). 

23  experts share experiences

Online course was coordinated and produced by Global Water Partnership Central and Easter Europe (GWP CEE), and with contributions from Danube Floodplain partners. 

The building of the course and all its components – with 23 experts bringing their experiences to lectures and case studies – has been under way for 8 months. The course topics are covered in 5 modules: 

1. First you will learn the principles of floodplain management and its relevance to EU legislation;
2. Experts will introduce you to lessons learned when putting the management and restoration theory into practice;
3. You will deepen your knowledge on technical aspects, such as modelling, ecosystem services valuation, and ecohydrological effects of invasive species;
4. Benefits of stakeholder engagement, the principles of feasibility studies, and cost-benefit analysis will be explained by experts and stakeholder themselves; 
5. And last but not least, you will learn how to use newly developed tools for evaluating and visualizing floodplains and their restoration potential.

“This online course offers the opportunity to non-professionals to learn more about the basics of hydrologic and hydraulic modelling to better appreciate the results of the science” said Prof. Markus Disse from Technical University of Munich.

Online Winter School to practice your knowledge and connect with other future floodplain managers

Everyone attending the course will be invited to join our Online Winter School, planned between 15 and 19 November. The online Winter School will aim to (1) link Danube Floodplain's achievements and recently developed scientific methods with working practices in water/flood resource management; (2) share specific Danube experiences in preservation and reservation floodplains for use in floodplain/water management and (3) build further capacities and sharing knowledge for better floodplain management.

“Having the necessary knowledge and skills is essential for ensuring a sustainable restoration of floodplains. This restoration can contribute to reducing flood risks and improving the ecological situation of riverine areas. It’s for this reason that the ICPDR very much appreciates and recommends the Danube Floodplain Online course” said Igor Liska from the International Commission for the protection of the Danube River.  

Find out more here and take the course here. 
 

Module coordinating partners are Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe, Technical University of Munich, National Administration Romanian Waters, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, World Wide Fund for Nature (Hungary & Romania), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna and University of Szeged

The course is offered under the TUMx channel.