Lake Balaton Live
Welcome to the website of Lake Balaton monitoring station!
The Water Research Team at the Department of Environmental and Sanitary Engineering, Budapest University of Technology and Economics has maintained its automatic monitoring station in Lake Balaton since 2001. The station is situated in the westernmost part of the lake and now operates as a component of the GLEON (Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network) community:
Lake Balaton is a large (596 km2), shallow (mean depth is 3.2 m) lake in Hungary with unique ecological values (Balaton Highlands National Park, Ramsar site). Simultaneously, the lake is an internationally recognized summer resort.
Balaton has suffered serious eutrophication from the '70s. Large-scale management measures taken from the mid '80s resulted in a rapid recovery. The global climate change manifested in a 0.5 m drop of the water level during the lasting drought in 2000-2004. We had to learn the lesson: our shallow lake—similar to other shallow lakes worldwide—is highly vulnerable to human induced environmental impacts. Our observations aim at better understanding of ecosystem functions and detecting any undesirable changes as soon as possible.