International Association for Danube Research
Overview
The association IAD is an active network of scientists in the Danube River Basin since 1956. Currently the IAD board has country representatives in 12 Danube countries and has active expert groups in 12 topics covering major ecological and management fields. Several hundred members in all Danube countries form the network of scientists in all major fields. From the beginning this association was very active in promoting exchange and mobility between scientists to foster cooperation and knowledge transfer. In terms of scientific issues, since the 1950s major water management and environmental issues have been key priorities on the agenda of IAD and science based solutions were discussed and proposed. The IAD is a registered association after Austrian Law (see www.IAD.gs).
IAD members are currently active in the following ICPDR expert groups: Expert Group on River Basin Management, Expert Group on Flood protection, Hydropower Expert group, Climate Change Adaptation Expert Group, Public Participation Expert Group.
Furthermore IAD members have been participating in the discussion and development of the “Guiding principles on sustainable hydropower development in the Danube Basin” and made major contributions related to the classification of sensitive ecological areas.
The board of the IAD is composed of the president, vice-president and general secretary. Since 2011 Thomas Hein from BOKU Wien (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna) and WasserCluster Lunz is the president, Ivana Teodorovic from the University of Novi Sad is the vice-president and since 2006 Harald Kutzenberger is the general secretary. The names of the country representatives and the expert group leaders can be found at the homepage of the IAD (www.iad.gs).
Current activities
Based on a river basin management plan provided by the ICPDR, IAD established to be a strong science based partner in different critical issues at river basin scale, such as sustainable development of navigation using the large rivers as waterways, future development of hydropower, protection of biodiversity including issues of invasive and introduced species, various forms of pollution (e.g. nutrients, organic and toxic substances) and new model approaches for sustainable management solutions in multiple used aquatic environments. Detailed reports and joined statements can be found on the IAD homepage.
IAD members are also active in the Danube Sturgeon Task Force (www.dstf.eu) and are involved in a number of EU und EUSDR project initiatives. The DSTF aims to coordinate and foster the conservation of native sturgeon species in the Danube River Basin and the adjacent Black Sea by the implementation of the Sturgeon Action Plan adopted under the Bern Convention in 2005.
IAD is publishing twice a year the Danube News (http://www.iad.gs/index.php?item=danube_news), is participating at the basin wide Danube Day and every second year an international conference is organized. A special issue about the 38th IAD conference in Dresden has been published in the international journal River Systems (http://www.schweizerbart.de/journals/rs?l=EN) in 2012. The 40th IAD conference was held in June 2014 in Sofia. The next conference will be held in 2016.