Sava river basin: sustainable use, management and protection of resources

Projektinformationen

SARIB

ID Finanzhilfevereinbarung: 509160

Startdatum 1 August 2004

Enddatum 31 Juli 2007

Finanziert unter

• Specific measures in support of international cooperation: Specific activities covering wider field of research under the Focusing and Integrating Community Research programme 2002-2006.

Gesamtkosten € 1 981 125,00

EU-Beitrag € 1 200 000,00

Koordiniert durch

JOZEF STEFAN INSTITUTE
Slovenia

Final Report Summary - SARIB (Sava river basin: Sustainable use, management and protection of resources)

The Sava river is the biggest tributary to the Danube river and its catchment extends over four Balkan countries, namely Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia. Until 1991, the collection of hydrologic and environmental data was satisfactory and unified across the entire river catchment.

Nevertheless, in the 20 years preceding the project, data were often missing due to insufficient monitoring and weak institutional and legal control over the use of water and land resources of the Sava catchment. Many aspects of the river quality needed scientific investigation, and the need to propose beneficiary actions for the sustainable use of the catchment resources emerged.

The SARIB project aimed to develop and validate specific tools, based on a combination of chemical analyses and biological effect methods, in order to evaluate the pollution of Sava sediments and its impacts on water biota. The geographical distribution of the pollution was identified through the development of a geographic information system (GIS) for the area of interest. Moreover, data on various environmental parameters, such as priority pollutants, bioaccumulation, health status of fish, etc. were collected and organised. The acquired information was then combined with conceptual model approaches to develop innovative assessment tools.

A prediction model for the behaviour of hazardous chemical substances was also developed and integrated with a socioeconomic model to form the basis for the analysis of different scenarios, remediation measures and best practice techniques. Methods and tools which offered the possibility to distribute or mitigate critical loads were subsequently identified according to the observed ecological vulnerability potential and the predictions for optimal economic exploitation of the catchment resources. Finally, the interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers, scientists and stakeholders was ensured via the project networking and communication activities.

Verwandte Dokumente

• Final Report - SARIB (Sava river basin: Sustainable use, management and protection of resources)