Hungary: Regional Support Office supports response to Danube floods

In early June this year, Hungary, along with Austria and Germany, was facing the largest-ever flood of the Danube. UN-SPIDER's Hungarian Regional Support Office (RSO) at Károly Róbert College, Gyöngyös, helped to manage the situation by processing archive satellite images, lidar data, highly precise orthophotos and hyperspectral and thermal data collection during the flood. The fellows of the RSO covered over 1200 km dyke of Danube and localized leakage by on board processing of the collected data, and the result was transmitted to the operative center of the National Directorate of Disaster Management. This activity was highly appreciated by the Head of Directorate.

In the context of the flood, the International Charter Space and Major Disasters was activated. On 27 to 28 June 2013, ESA organized a training for this international mechanism in Frascati, Italy. Hungarian RSO’s representative Pal Bozó attended the meeting. He presented the Hungarian RSO’s activities, especially the data collection and processing during the recent flood - the biggest flood that Hungary had ever experienced.