DryPan: Novel EO data for improved agricultural drought impact forecasting in the Pannonian basin

The Pannonian basin is a sheltered region, with relatively low levels of precipitation (< 600 mm/year), therefore its surrounding mountains are considered a key water source. Over the last decades several drought episodes took place. Scientific research groups with cross-border cooperation on drought monitoring and management were established including the Drought Management Centre for South-Eastern Europe (DMCSEE) (hwww.dmcsee.org) and the Pannonian Basin Experiment (PannEx). These act as a response to combat the increased frequency and intensity of dry spells and heat waves under climate change and the need to increase the capacity of the relevant stakeholders to manage drought events and their impacts. The DryPan project is funded by ESA and builds upon the experiences of the Interreg funded DriDanube products. DryPan’s objectives include: i) to develop and validate a set of novel Earth Observation products and enhanced data sets dedicated to characterise Drought processes in the Pannonian basin; ii) to foster new scientific results addressing some of the main priority areas of research in the region, where space technology may provide a valuable input; iii) to promote the use of advanced EO datasets for Drought Early Warning in the region by facilitating access to the developed products and results through a professional project web site exploiting advanced data access and visualisation tools; and iv) to develop a roadmap identifying additional science priorities as a driver for launching potential new development activities addressing the priorities of the Danube science communities in the timeframe 2020-2021.