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Hungary as a landlocked country is situated within the heart of the Danube Basin. The entire territory (93,030 km2) is found in the Basin. Rivers enter the country from the west, north and east and flow towards the south. Almost one fifth of the 9,8 million inhabitants live in the capital, Budapest - the City of Spas – which lies on the banks of the Danube. Lake Balaton in the west, the largest lake of the Danube Basin, is a recreational area for the country. Hungary became a Signatory Party to the Danube River Protection Convention (DRPC) in 1994 and joined the EU in 2004.

The Danube River is seeing an influx of new non-native species, stemming from the increasing interconnections with various European and global water bodies via canals and other waterways designed to facilitate navigation. It is currently believed that alien species are very likely to become even more significant in the future, as the importance of the Danube as an international waterway increases.

The Drava River is the fourth largest, as well as the fourth longest Danube tributary. It connects the Alps with the Danube and the Black Sea. The Drava has been considerably regulated with dams constructed to generate hydroelectricity and channels dredged to direct its flow. Nevertheless, natural habitats along the middle and lower reaches host unique varieties of flora and fauna, and several endemic species.

Water quality in the Danube has improved over the years, but there is still much work to be done to meet the region’s goals for water status. To improve the water quality, an ambitious programme of measures for the whole Danube River Basin District has been agreed under the EU WFD. To assess trends in water quality, the ICPDR oversees the TransNational Monitoring Network (TNMN). The network carefully monitors physical, chemical and biological conditions in the Danube and its tributaries, and provides in TNMN Yearbooks an annual overview of pollution levels as well as long term trends for water quality in the basin.