The geographical position and hydrographic features of former and present-day Hungary have clearly defined and of course still determine the role and importance of hydrology. The country is located in the middle of the Danube River Basin and the Carpathian Basin. In the lowlands, the protection against floods pouring down from the surrounding high mountains, and the rational management with resources of low water in the dry periods, the fight against water and for water characterized the more than a millennium, which the Hungarians spent in the Carpathian Basin.
The first Danube flood records back to 1012, during which "countless people, livestock and buildings perished.” Our oldest water level records are from the 1693/94 flood. Regular monitoring of water levels on the Danube started in 1823 with the aid of gauges set up in Bratislava and Buda, and on the Tisza at Szeged in 1833. During the Compromise period (political term for Austro-Hungarian Compromise that means Hungary was separated from the Austrian Empire), regular water level monitoring was already carried out at 57 sites. Dissemination of water levels to stakeholders, namely the operation of hydrological forecasting service soon began. It started on the Tisza as early as 1856, but only during flood periods. Generally, the daily notification about water levels was sent from 1886.
Hydrological activity carried out by several institutions, which has become more and more diversified over times and indicating and forecasting the repeated floods has increasingly highlighted the need to set up a central organization. The ice floods on the Danube in February-March 1876 and the Tisza floods in March 1879 urgently made the establishment of a unified hydrological service. Finally, by issuing the ministerial decree No. 1007/1886. of Gábor Baross, Minister of Public Works and Transport, on 1 May 1886, the Department of Hydrological Monitoring and Forecasting began its work as a part of the organizations of the Ministry. The first Head of the Institute became József Péch, who was one of the leading specialists of that age.
The centralization of hydrographic tasks was thus closely connected with the devastating floods in Hungary. It is not surprising then that one of the most important tasks of the newly formed Hydrographic Department was to organize a flood forecasting service. This included the optimal design of the meteorological and hydrological observation network, the establishment of a forecasting organization that is called the Hydrological Forecasting Service and defining the form in which the information is to be disseminated. The Hydrological Forecasting Service started its operation on 1 March 1892. For the time being only for the water levels of the Tisza Valley but soon it was transformed into the National Hydrological Forecasting Service.
After the First World War, the unity of Hungary's river basin districts disappeared, and a significant part of the river basin district is transferred into the territory of foreign countries. This fact significantly slowed down the development of the National Hydrological Forecast Service. The International Danube Commission was established in 1921, and the International Hydrological Forecasting Service in the Danube Basin in 1924, within the framework of which the content and form issues of data exchange between the Danube countries were determined.
Structurally, the National Hydrological Forecasting Service operates within the framework of the Hydrographic Institute, established in 1929, and after taking some roundabout ways, the Water Management Scientific Research Institute (Vízügyi Tudományos Kutató Intézet - VITUKI) was established in 1952, under which the National Hydromark Service has operated in various forms for exactly 60 years.
Unfortunately the fate of VITUKI was finally sealed in the spring of 2012, as a result of which the National Hydrological Forecasting Service will perform its tasks in a new place, within the General Directorate of Water Management (OVF), from 1 August 2012.
Source: dr. Károly Stelczer: The 100 years of Hydrographic Service - A vízrajzi szolgálat száz éve. Budapest, 1986.
THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL Hydrological Forecasting SERVICE
The tasks of the National Hydrological Forecasting Service, which had been established shortly before, were defined by the Hungarian Royal Ministry of Agriculture in a publication of 1899, as follows:
"The aim and role of the National Hydrological Forecasting Service is to inform all stakeholders involved, such as the Hungarian Royal Ministry of Agriculture, the National Water Engineering Directorate, the Royal River Engineering Offices, the flood control and water regulation or water utilization associations, also the relevant administrative authorities and the public in general as quickly as possible of the water levels and precipitation in the most important rivers and valleys of our country, the height of the water levels expected from these and, in some cases, the depth of the navigable water."
The definition of this task is so precise and complete that it would still be relevant today. The scope of the service's tasks has not changed, or has changed only slightly, but the organisational framework has changed and the content and form of the tasks have changed. The above mentioned description of the tasks of the Hungarian Hydrologcial Forecasting Service, which goes back more than a hundred years, shows that the tasks of the Service require data processing and forecasting.
The Hungarian Hydrological Forecast Service collects, processes and publishes daily hydrological and hydro-meteorological data on the water flow of rivers in Hungary and the hydrometeorological conditions of its catchment area. In this framework, in total, approximately 40,000 data of around 1200 meteorological stations and 700 hydrological observatories are processed every day of the year. It collects and disseminates data on the shallow conditions of navigable rivers (mainly the Danube). It produces and publishes daily the Daily Water Regime Map, which has a history of more than 100 years. It supervises and continuously maintains the Operational Hydro-meteorological Database (OPADAT) and the National Hydrological Data Archive, which are produced by archiving incoming data, in accordance with the recommendations of the Danube Commission, and conducts the daily exchange of hydrological data with the Danube riparian countries.
In its forecasting activities, the Hungarian Hydrological Forecast Service continuously monitors and analyses the hydrometeorological situation in the Danube basin, including the monitoring of the complex processes of snow accumulation and melting. It forecasts daily the flow regime for a total of 98 sections of the Danube, Tisza and Dráva-Mura catchment, and the expected ice conditions for the main river sections, and operates a flood warning service (together with the regional Water Management Directorates) during floods. It prepares and publishes daily the Extraordinary Hydrometeorological Report, in which the current and expected hydrometeorological situation of the water system affected by the flood is summarised and analysed in detail. On 1 March each year, it publishes the 3-month-lead-time report on hydrological regime, which provides an estimate of the expected spring discharge conditions of the Danube and the Tisza.
During the international activities of the Hungarian Hydrological Forecasting Service and during the development and operation of the applied hydrometeorological data processing and forecasting system, with the usage of an accumulated, rich, professional experience and background data system it is involved in various national and international cooperation and projects.