The National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management Bucharest, ROMANIA

1. The National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management Bucharest, ROMANIA

2. Services & Products • Warnings in case of dangerous phenomena (floods, drought, ice jam, accidental pollution) • Hydrological forecasts on short, medium and long term • Development, upgrading and implementation of hydrological models and forecasting • Technical – scientific guidance and assistance of the hydrological network • Modernization of the national network • Parametric hydrology studies • Impact of human activity and climate changes on the hydrological regime • Eco-hydrology researches

3. Services & Products • Studies and researches regarding the protection of water resources • Assessment of the water resources and the hydrological water balance components • Studies for integrated and sustainable water management and water development, optimization of the water use, conservation of quantity and quality water • Development of informational technologies, hydrological data bases and GIS procedures • Studies regarding the morphology of the Danube River, the Danube Delta and the Black Sea

4. ROMANIAN ORGANIZATIONS CHARGED WITH HYDROLOGICAL FORECASTS AND FLOOD WARNINGS • National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management (NIHWM) • National authority - the National Hydrological Forecasting Center (NHFC) is charged with: • Operational hydrological forecasts (short-range, medium and long-range) and flood warnings at national-wide. • Development of mathematical models aiming to be applied in hydrological forecasting. • National Water ADMINISTRATION “ApeleRomâne” (NWA) • 11 Basin Hydrological Forecasting Centres (BHFC), corresponding to the main major 11 river basins • downscale the short-range forecasts and flood warnings at the basin-level. The Meteorological Forecasting Centre (MFC) from National Administration of Meteorology (NAM) is the Romanian provider of the meteorological forecasts.

5. The main users of the hydrological forecasts and warnings Ministry of the Environment, Water and Forests Central Commission for the Defense against Floods, Dangerous Meteorological Phenomena and Accidents at Hydraulic Structures Government Presidency of Romania Ministry of Transports Ministry of Agriculture Ministryof Internal Affairs Ministry of Energy Hydrological Services from neighboring countries bilateral agreements Mass media Hydropower Company Civil protection

6. Data sources for hydrological forecasts and flood warnings issues: hydrological and meteorological data: precipitation, levels, discharges, ice phenomena, snow cover, air and water temperature • National hydrological network: about 900 classical gauging stations, out of which about 140 stations are equipped with water level, precipitation and air temperature sensors - under the administration of the National Water Administration “ApeleRomâne” • National meteorological network - under the administration of the National Administration of Meteorology (NAM) • Hydrological data and forecasts from the hydrological services from the neighboring countries The data transmission is mainly based on the radiotelephone facilities and GSM-telephone system. During flooding periods the stations transmit hourly the information (level, discharge, rain) starting when critical thresholds are exceeded (warning water level determined for each gauging station and/or rainfall warning threshold: 15mm/3 hours or 25 mm/6 hours).

7. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HYDROLOGY AND WATER MANAGEMENT THE NATIONAL HYDROLOGICAL FORECASTING CENTER, as the national authority is charged with: • the elaboration and dissemination of hydrological diagnosis and operational hydrological forecasts (short, medium and long term forecasts) for all rivers in Romania and also for the Danube river; • the elaboration of flood warnings and alerts at national-wide in case of severe hydro-meteorological events. The staff working in the NHFC is also responsible for guiding and training in the field of operational data validation, data flow, hydrological forecasting activity, in order to improve the quality of the hydrological data and information.

8. The main activities of the National Hydrological Forecasting Center consists of: • Preparing the daily, weekly and monthly hydrological bulletins (daily river status and hydrological forecasts) and also hydrological forecasts with more than 3 months anticipation • Issuing flood warnings and alerts in case of dangerous hydrological phenomena (floods, draught, ice formations) ; • Issuing operational reports and informative bulletins (monthly and annual reports concerning the hydrological background or special reports in case of extreme hydrological events; • Cooperating with all the neighboring countries (in the frame of mutual agreements) regarding real time data exchange and water management activities for the border rivers; • Creating and updating the specific hydrological operational data base;

9. The main activities of the National Hydrological Forecasting Center consists of: • Providing the maintenance and development of the HFMS-DESWAT System at the NIHWM level and coordinating the activity of using this system at the national level; • Improving and increasing the operational methods for the dissemination of the hydrological diagnosis, forecasts, warnings and alerts; • Guiding and training the hydrological forecasting activity at the level of each Forecasting Center from the Hydrological Departments in the frame of Water Basin Administration ; • Monitoring the performance of automatic hydrometric stations within the DESWAT project; • Improving and developing the hydrological models and methods for better hydrological forecasts and warnings.

10. Methods and practices in order to issue the hydrological forecasts and hydrological warnings or alerts used in the National Hydrological Forecasting Center • In order to issue the short range forecasts, the following methods are used: • the trend method ( for levels and water discharge) • the volumetric method • the corresponding discharge method (warning basin method and runoff formation models) • the rainfall-runoff relations (runoff composition and propagation models)-the peak discharge in a given cross-section in function of the mean rainfall on the basin and the soil moisture. The hydrological forecasting methods in case of floods are different and they depend of the water accumulated in the basin area upstream the cross -section of the river .

11. Methods and practices in order to issue the hydrological forecasts and hydrological warnings or alerts used in the National Hydrological Forecasting Center • In order to issue the medium range forecasts, the following methods are used: • the dynamic-statistical method (the discharge hydrograph depends both of the water supply in the river bed and also of the incoming water from the rainfall recorded in the river basin) • runoff composition and propagation models ( mainly for the downstream big river cross sections)

12. Methods and practices in order to issue the hydrological forecasts and hydrological warnings or alerts used in the National Hydrological Forecasting Center • The methodology used in order to issue long range forecasts takes into account the dynamics of the meteorological phenomena and also of the water runoff in the interval and/or the statistical elements obtained from all the discharge data range from the hydrometric station . • the dynamic-statistical method • discharge auto-correlation • correlation conditioned by water discharge at certain probabilities • analogy method

13. Methods and practices in order to issue the hydrological forecasts and hydrological warnings or alerts used in the National Hydrological Forecasting Center • In order to issue short and medium-range hydrological forecasts , the hydrologists in the National Hydrological Forecasting Center use also the new forecasting models and information provided by the new modelling and forecasting system HFMS-DESWAT, consisting of; • the deterministic conceptual model – RFS • the distributed models LIS-NOAH and TOPLATS • the products provided by the ROFFG System – a system used in order to estimate the risk of flash floods occurrence

14. The NHFC main products Daily bulletin • the river hydrological evolution regime in the last 24 hours forecast for the next 24 hours (levels and discharge) in some river cross sections;

15. the hydrological evolution in the last 24 hours on the Danube river and hydrological forecasts for the next 7 days for the Bazias cross -section and for the hydrometric stations on the sector downsream Iron Gates Reservoir The hydrological forecasts for the next 6 days for the inside rivers the ice formations and their forecasted evolution for rivers and for the Romanian sector of the Danube river

16. The NHFC main products The monthly hydrological bulletin • the hydrological forecast for the next three months for mean monthly discharge for 32 river hydrometric stations • incoming mean monthly discharge for 24 reservoirs • the incoming mean monthly discharge for the Danube at the entrance into the country (Bazias cross-section) • Map with modul coefficients (areas) • Modul coefficient = the monthly discharge/ the multiannual monthly discharge

17. The NHFC main products HYDROLOGICAL WARNINGS AND ALERTS SPECIAL OPERATIONAL REPORTS IN CASE OF DRAUGHTS AND FLOODS

18. Thank you very much for your attention! Looking forward for a … normal hydrological year!