The “GIS Forum Danube” was founded in 1997 as a trilateral working group by the waterway administrations from Germany, Austria and Slovakia.
As common goals theses members defined the development of an intensive exchange of geographical data and a close cooperation in the field of waterway management along the Danube waterway. Since 1999 the group has been supported by the Danube Commission and had been asked to handle topics related to River Information Services (RIS).
At this time the name of this trilateral working group was changed into “GIS Forum Danube”. In the following Hungary joined the meetings in 2000, Croatia in 2002 and Romania as well as the Ukraine in 2003. Since 2004 finally also Serbia-Montenegro as well as Bulgaria have been officially participating in the meetings as full partners. Finally, Russia joined.
The Technical Secretariat of the Danube Commission is participating in the meetings as permanent guest.
The “GIS Forum Danube” has defined the following operative tasks:
| Package | Description | WP Leader | Company |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work package 1 | Data Warehouse | Markus Schedlbauer | Via Donau |
| Work package 2 | Software Tools | Wieland Haupt | FGS Germany |
| Work package 3 | Geo-related basic data | Egon Feigel | WSD South |
| Work package 4 | Geomorphological and hydrological models | Martin Bacik | SVP |
| Work package 5 | Infrastructure | Thomas Wagner | WSD South |
| Work package 6 | RIS Standards | Markus Schedlbauer | Via Donau |