DANube SEdiment Restoration: towards deployment and upscaling of sustainable management of the sediments across the Danube catchment basin

The Danube River, one of Europe's most significant rivers , holds immense ecological and socio-economic value. Spanning across multiple countries and diverse landscapes, the Danube River basin plays a crucial role in supporting biodiversity, providing habitats for aquatic organisms, and delivering essential ecosystem service s. Furthermore, it serves as a vital transportation network of navigation routes , with inherent industrial, touristic and identitary significance. However, human activities, including flood protection measures, river channelization, sediment excavation, hydropower generation, and land-based practices, have substantially impacted the sediment balance and quality within the river system . These alterations pose environmental challenges, ecosystems stressors, as well as increased flood risks, navigation limitations, and compromised biodiversity .
In response to these pressing issues, DANSER project aims at addressing the urgent need for sustainable sediment management at a river basin scale, focusing on the Danube River-Black Sea system as an integrated entity, and targeting large scale deployment and impact already in the mid term (2030). Through the demonstration of innovative and holistic solutions (e.g . spatio-temporal mapping of natural and anthropogenic fluvial processes, sediment transport modelling, sediment dating by radiometric methods, 3D historical reconstruction of the DEMO sites evolution, river processes forcast simulations, sediment budget analysis, stakeholder-engaged sediment management), this project seeks to restore sediment balance, improve sediment flow and quality, and integrate such actions and knowledge with the EU and World wide counterparts (existing bodies, digital platforms, other basins, relevant events and know how).