Climate Sense

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Increasing preparedness

for climate change in Hungary

István Láng, Hungarian Academy of Sciences; László Csete, ‘CLIMA-21’ Brochures, Budapest;

Tibor Faragó, Ministry of Environment and Water, Budapest; Márton Jolánkai, Szent István University, Gödöllö;

János Mika, Hungarian Meteorological Service and Eszterházy Károly College, Eger

n 2003 the Hungarian Ministry of Environment and Water

(HMEW), and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS)

launched a joint research project called ‘Global climate

change, its impacts in Hungary and responses’. The project

is commonly referred to as VAHAVA, from the abbreviated

Hungarian for ‘Change, Impact, Response’. Since the National

Environmental Program of Hungary was already dealing with

the national task of controlling emissions of greenhouse gases,

VAHAVA focused primarily on vulnerability and adaptation in

relation to the anticipated impacts of climate change.

It formulated two strategic objectives: preparing the Hungarian

people and economy for likely increased extreme weather and

hydrometeorological events, thus enabling them to cope with

warmer and drier conditions; and developing the organizational,

technical and financial infrastructure needed for a timely response.

VAHAVA’s major methodological aim was the synthesis of large

systems. Representatives of various scientific disciplines were invited

to take part in this complex project. No new research programmes

were launched, but knowledge, data and experience

gained in past decades was synthesized – creating new

intellectual products.

Climate and extremes in Hungary

The Hungarian climate is affected by influences from

three directions: continental effects from the east,

Atlantic from the west and Mediterranean from the

south. As a result the meteorological events from

year-to-year and season-to-season are highly variable.

The countrywide average temperature follows global

changes, but shows somewhat higher warming than

the global rate. These changes occur mostly in summer.

The disadvantageous impacts of extreme mete-

orological events include: floods; excess inland water

inundations; droughts; deluvian rainstorms; hail; heat

waves; increasing UV radiation; early and late frosts;

heavy snow drifts; wind storms; forest and bush fires;

and the appearance of new pathogens and pests. The

more serious impacts are also affected by human activi-

ties – for example, inappropriate land use and the lack

of maintenance of levees in flood-prone areas.

The working hypotheses of the project were that

warming will be stronger than the expected global average

in the Carpathian Basin, that we should expect decreas-

ing annual average precipitation, and that the number and

intensity of extreme meteorological events will increase.

Basic results and recommendations of the project

A large number of measures and regulatory consid-

erations were formulated in the wake of the project.

A selection of findings and recommendations follows.

VAHAVA concentrated its activities on increas-

ing the general awareness of interested stakeholders

on climate change hazards, impacts and necessary

responses. Different layers of society, individuals,

elements of the natural environment, landscape and

sectors of the national economy all react differently to

climate changes. Their vulnerability and resilience are

also different. An extremely important result was that

it successfully drew the public’s attention to changing

climate and the need for increasing preparedness. There

is an urgent need for raising awareness, in which educa-

tion, training, professional advice and popular-scientific

overnance

and

olicy

Heavy snowfall limits even the railway transport. Though the event becomes less

frequent with global warming in Hungary, the ability to cope with it should be sustained

Image: Hungarian Meteorological Service, Budapest