Establishment of the Sediment Monitoring System for the Sava River Basin Sediment Transport Processes in Rivers

The Sava River Basin (further SRB), a major sub-basin of the Danube River in South-East Europe, is shared by five countries, and hosts a population of roughly 8.5 million. Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia are Parties of the Framework Agreement on the Sava River Basin (FASRB). Its implementation body is the International Sava River Basin Commission (ISRBC) which is responsible for development of joint plans and programs regarding the sustainable water management among others. ISRBC has developed the Protocol on Sediment Management to the FASRB which affirms the need for efficient cooperation among the Parties and for promotion of sustainable sediment management (SSM) solutions. On the Ministerial meeting held on July 6th 2015 in Brčko the Parties to the FASRB signed the Protocol on Sediment Management to the FASRB which affirms the need for efficient cooperation among the Parties and for promotion of sustainable sediment management (SSM) solutions. The BALSES project (2014) was a step towards the understanding of sediment balance in SRB. Although it revealed that in the moment direct water-sediment interrelationships within SRB cannot be determined, it opened a door for future – hopefully when many present problems (as insufficient number of monitoring sites, very limited data and differences in measurement methodology) will not be the obstacle. However, the analysis and interpretation of the existing sediment database enabled the understanding of some basic characteristics of the sediment transport in the Sava River, where suspended sediment has the most important role. The anthropogenic factors (existing dams and reservoirs, river training structures and excavation of sediment) were also recognized as important. Within the framework of a cooperative effort associating the UNESCO Venice Office (UVO), ISRBC, the European Sediment Network (SedNet) and the UNESCO-IHP International sediment Initiative (ISI) ISRBC established the Core expert group for the implementation of the project “Proposal of the Establishment of the Sediment Monitoring System for the Sava River Basin”. This paper presents the main results of this project.