The Sava River Basin is a major sub-basin of the Danube River, located in South Eastern Europe. The basin is shared by 5 countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia while a negligible part of the basin area also extends to Albania. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia are Parties of the Framework Agreement on the Sava River Basin (FASRB). The implementation body of the FASRB 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. To respond to the above-mentioned needs, a project entitled “Towards Practical Guidance for Sustainable Sediment Management using the Sava River Basin as a Showcase” has been launched upon the initiative of the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe, Venice (Italy), together with the International Sediment Initiative (ISI), the European Sediment Network (SedNet) and the International Sava River Basin Commission (ISRBC). The main objective of this project is to develop and validate a practical guidance on how to achieve a SSM Plan on the river-basin scale, using the Sava River Basin as a showcase.

The core expert group has been established to analyse the sediment balance for the main Sava River course, also considering the input from the main tributaries, and thus to form a basis for sustainable transboundary sediment and water management. After collecting existing data the core expert group analysed and evaluated the existing sediment data in the Sava River Basin, and made the best estimation of basin-wide sediment balance. Also, the group analysed temporal variability of the sediment data at the mean annual scale, estimated seasonal pattern and identified the role of floods in sediment transport.

In addition to the best expert knowledge and estimations, the identification of monitoring and sampling gaps and the recognition of data uncertainties led to the proposal of effective sediment monitoring system and recommendation of future joint activities towards its establishment.

Link: Report on Estimation of Sediment Balance for the Sava River [PDF; 18 Mb]