Lake Balaton Indicator System

The Lake Balaton Indicator System contributes to a better understanding of Lake Balaton ecological and socio-system vulnerabilities arising from multiple forces of change. 

The project examined the prospect that, due to the constellation of local and global causes, potentially including climate change as well as the unique attributes of the lake, Lake Balaton is entering a phase of critical vulnerabilities. Going beyond the assessment of vulnerabilities, the project involved connecting analysis to policy planning and the consideration of regional adaptation options in a consultative process with affected regional stakeholders.

Lake Balaton has a long history of scientific research and monitoring, making it one of the best-studied lakes in the world. Although this may be the case, the abundance of scientific data is in stark contrast with the paucity of systematized, regularly updated trend information available to the general public and decision-makers in an easy-to-access format. Information is not only scattered across countless agencies, often it is available only after paying a considerable fee. The purpose of this project was to develop an indicator system and create a platform to compare environmental, economic and social trends in an environmentally sensitive area with heavy dependence on tourism. Compiling cross-cutting datasets presents a variety of problems: there are many data gaps, few consistent time series and the data (collected at considerable expense) are frequently left to sit in formats that make them useless, except to the most dedicated experts. This greatly limits comprehensive analyses between economic, social and environmental domains.