A source of up-to-date information on current water resources, their quality and quantity, in every country in the Balkans. Institutional structures, water management issues and water monitoring problems are analyzed, with special reference to international waters, using characteristic case studies, including the Sava River, Lake Ohrid, The Nestos/Mesta River, the Neretva River estuary, and coastal waters in Turkey. Contributions written by experts from France, the UK and the USA demonstrate state-of-the-art electronic networking and the management of distributed water databases. The protection of water resources in the Balkans has become a high profile issue since the collapse of communism in the area, the break up of former Yugoslavia, and ethnic tensions in Kosovo. Transboundary river pollution and the development of international water basins call demand urgent regional co-operation, which will be facilitated by the International Network of Water-Environment Centres for the Balkans, the initiation of which is described in the final conclusions of the book.

The Danube River Basin is shared by 19 countries and there is no river basin in the world shared by so many nations. Covering an area of about 800,000 km, it is Europe's second largest river basin and home to 83 million people of different cultures, languages and historical backgrounds.

Management of common water sources and overcoming difficulties caused by droughts and floods requires co-operation between these countries. In the past twenty years political turbulence has caused an increase in the number of countries included, making co-operation difficult at times. Nevertheless several projects were launched and a number of reports were produced. In 2008, at the 22nd Working Meeting of the Regional Hydrological Co-operation of the Danube Countries in the framework of IHP/UNESCO at the XXIVth Conference of the Danubian Countries, it was decided that these reports would be summarised in one special publication. It was also agreed to include additional reports serving the common interest.

This publication therefore brings together the reports and papers related to regional co-operation. It is the result of a major collaboration and examines a broad range of topics. These include hydrological forecasting and hydro-meteorological extremes, global climate change and hydrological processes, water management, and developments in hydrology. The book includes the efforts of many hydrologists and technical staff from different Universities and Agencies from all countries of the Danube River Basin. "

The Danube River Basin is shared by 19 countries and there is no river basin in the world shared by so many nations. Europe's second largest river basin with a total 2 area of about 800,000 km is also home to 83 million people of different cultures, languages and historical backgrounds. Management of common water sources and overcoming dif?culties caused by droughts and ?oods requires co-operation between the countries. In 1971 these c- mon interests stimulated the hydrologists of - at that time - eight Danube countries to begin regional co- operation in the framework of the International Hydrological Decade of UNESCO. The result of this research was The Hydrological Monograph of the Danube and its Catchment, which was published in 1986. Since 1975 this co-operation has continued under the umbrella of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) of UNESCO. In the past 20 years political turbulence has caused an increase in the number of countries, making the co-operation dif?cult at times.

A source of up-to-date information on current water resources, their quality and quantity, in every country in the Balkans. Institutional structures, water management issues and water monitoring problems are analyzed, with special reference to international waters, using characteristic case studies, including the Sava River, Lake Ohrid, The Nestos/Mesta River, the Neretva River estuary, and coastal waters in Turkey. Contributions written by experts from France, the UK and the USA demonstrate state-of-the-art electronic networking and the management of distributed water databases. The protection of water resources in the Balkans has become a high profile issue since the collapse of communism in the area, the break up of former Yugoslavia, and ethnic tensions in Kosovo. Transboundary river pollution and the development of international water basins call demand urgent regional co-operation, which will be facilitated by the International Network of Water-Environment Centres for the Balkans, the initiation of which is described in the final conclusions of the book.