Abstract
Designated in 1990 as Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO’s MAB program and Wetland of International Importance under the RAMSAR Convention in 1991, Danube Delta is the largest best preserved of Europe’s deltas. Despite that, its ecosystems are affected by upstream conditions, the Romanian Danube being the end carrier of all wastewater discharges from upstream countries to the Black Sea. Water quality in Romania was reasonably steady prior to the 1950s, but Romanian sudden economic and industrial development between the 1960s and 1980s coupled with critical hydrological works made upstream (Iron Gates I and II construction) and inside the delta, resulted in increasing pressure from human activities that exploit natural resources, conducted in a significant worsening of the Danube water quality. Diffuse agricultural sources, especially chemical fertilizer use and the improper working or even the absence of wastewater treatment plants in Central and Eastern Europe can be regarded as the significant input. Some progress in water quality has been made during the last 25 years by the adoption in 1991 of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive and Nitrates Directive, but the results were not immediately. A forward step was the implementation in 2000 of EU Water Framework Directive, which encourages all EU countries to achieve good chemical and ecological status. This chapter offers an overview over almost 25 years of the anthropogenic pressures in Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve in the last half-century accompanied by long-term water quality assessment in this area using legislations, physical-chemical (such as salts, nutrients, heavy metals) and biological parameters.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bartram J & Ballance R, (1996). Water quality monitoring: a practical guide to the design and implementation of freshwater quality studies and monitor-ing programs World Health Organization & United Nations Environment Programme Edited by Jamie Bartram and Richard Balance, London: E & FN Spon ISBN 0 419 22320 7 (Hbk) 0 419 21730 4 (Pbk), http://www.who.int/iris/handle/10665/41851.
Botnariuc N, Ignat G, Diaconu I & Vadineanu A (1987). L’évolution de l’étattrophique des ecosystems aquatiquescaractéristiques au Delta du Danube: 5. La structure et la dynamique de la faunebenthonique. Rev. Roum. Biol. Anim 32(2): 121–127.
Breţcan P, Murarescu O, Samoila E & Popescu O (2009). Water Management in the Razim-Sinoie Lacustrine Complex. Conference: International Symposium on Water Management and Hydraulic Engineering, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Hydraulics, Hydrology and River Engineering At: Skopje, North Macedonia p. 791–802.
Cowx IG, Almeida O, Bene C, Brummett R, Bush S, Darwall W, Pittock J & van Brakel M (2004). Value of river fisheries. In: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on the Management of Large Rivers for Fisheries Volume I. Welcomme R. and T. Petr, Eds., FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand. RAP Publication 2004/16, pp. 1–20. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/ad525e/ad525e0i.htm. Accessed on May 10, 2018.
European Environment Agency (EEA), SOER (2015). The European environment — state and outlook 2015: Freshwater quality, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark.
European Parliament and Council (2000). Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC(WFD). Brussel, Official Journal of the European Communities (OJL 327).
Environmental Protection Agency – EPA (2016): Water Framework Directive. Retrieved from http://www.epa.ie/water/watmg/wfd/. Access on 5 April, 2018.
Fretter V & Graham A (1962). British prosobranchmolluscs. Their functional anatomy and ecology. Ray Society, London.
Galatchi L-D & Tudor M (2007). Europe as a source of pollution - the main factor for the eutrophication of the Danube Delta and Black Sea. Chapter In NATO Security through Science Series C: Environmental Security, pp. 57–63, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5098-5_5.
Gâştescu P & Ştiucă R (2008). Delta Dunarii Rezervatie a Biosferei. Edit. CD PRESS, 400 p. ISBN 978-973-1760-98-9.
Gâştescu P (2017). The Danube-Hydrographic Polarisation European Axis. State-of-the-art. Riscurişicatastrofe, No. XVI, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 9–23, https://doi.org/10.24193/rcj2017_01.
Giosan L, Coolen MJL, Kaplan JO, Constantinescu S, Filip F, Filipova-Marinova M, Kettner AJ and Thom N (2012) Early Anthropogenic Transformation of the Danube-Black Sea System. Sci. Rep. 2, 582 p. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00582.
Gomoiu M-T (1992). Marine eutrophication syndrome in the north-western part of the Black Sea. In: Vollenweider RA Viviani R. Marchetti R. Marine (eds.) Coastal Eutrophication Proceedings of an International Conference, Bologna, Italy, 21–24 March https://doi.org/10.1016/C2009-0-10217-9, ISBN 978-0-444-89990-3.
Humborg C, Ittekkot V, Cociasu A & Bodungen BV (1997). Effect of Danube River dam on Black Sea biogeochemistry and ecosystem structure. Nature 386 (6623): 385–388 https://doi.org/10.1038/386385a0.
ICPDR (2007). Water Quality in the Danube River Basin, Issue Paper on Nutrient Pollution in the Danube River Basin.
International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River –ICPDR (2015). The Danube River Basin District Management Plan Part A – Basin-wide overview Update 2015Vienna, Austria: ICPDR.
Kerney MP (1999). Atlas of land and freshwater molluscs of Britain and Ireland. Harley Books, Colchester, 264 pp.
Liepolt R (1967). Limnologie der Donau. Schweizerbart’scheVerl. Stuttgart. 591 p.
Lloyd R (1961). The toxicity of mixtures of zinc and copper sulphates to rainbow trout (Salmogairdneri Richardson). Ann. Appl. Biol. 49, p. 535–538.
Nachtnebe HP (1997). The Danube River Basin Environmental Programme: Plans and Actions for a Basin Wide Approach, EU-SADC Conference on Shared River Basins Maseru, Lesotho, May 1997.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development– (OECD) (2016). Water Quality Governance - Oecd.org., Water Quality Cooperation in the Danube Region – A Hungarian perspective. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/environment/resources/Hungary-case-study-water-quality-gover. Access on March 21, 2018.
Order MEWM no. 161/2006 of Romanian Ministry of Environment and Water Management regarding Norms for surface water classification in order to establish ecological state of water bodies, in Romanian Official Monitor, no. 511 (published in 13 June 2006), Bucharest.
Panin N & Jipa D (2002). Danube River Sediment Input and its Interaction with the North-western Black Sea. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 54 (3), p 551–562, https://doi.org/10.1006/ecss.2000.0664.
Ronald BM (2018). Strategic action plan for the Danube River Basin. Data from International Environmental Agreements Database Project (Version 2018.1). Available at: https://iea.uoregon.edu/treaty-text/1994-strategicactionplandanuberiverentxt.
Schmid R (2000). Water quality of the Danube and her tributaries - 1995. Explanations to the River Danube water quality map. Gewässergüte der Donau und ihrerNebenflüsse - 1995. ErläuterungenzurGewässergütekarte der Donau. State Office for Regional Water Management Regensburg and IAD General Secretary Vienna, April 2000.
SR EN ISO 17294-2 (2017). Water quality. The application of the Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry Method. Part 2 – The 62 elements determination.
SR ISO 5667-6 (1997). Water quality. Sampling. Part 6. Guidance on sampling of rivers and streams.
Stojsavljević M (2011). The River Danube – An important euro-Mediterranean connection. In: Tarrósy I, S Milford (eds) EU Strategy for the Danube region perspectives for the future, Proceedings of the 8th DRC Summer School, Vienna, ISBN 978-615-5001-54-3.
Tarrósy I & Milford S (2011). EU strategy for the Danube region perspectives for the future. In Proceedings of the 8th DRC Summer School, Vienna: IDResearch Ltd. and the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM), ISBN 978-615-5001-54-3.
Tătui F, Vespremenau A, Zăinescu F & Constantinescu Ș (2017). Danube Delta Coastline Dynamics in the last 160 years. In Proceedings of the Romanian Geomorphology Symposium, 33rd edition, Iași, 11–14 May 2017, p. 107-109, ISSN 2559 - 3021, ISSN-L 2559 – 3021.
UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project (2006). Component 1.1-9, Report Development of Sava River basin management plan – Pilot Project RER/03/G31/A/1G/31 Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia & Montenegro, Slovenia.
Vadineanu A & Cristofor S (1987). L’evolution de l’etattrophique des ecosystems aquatiquescaracteristiques du Delta du Danube. 1. Le regime hidrologique, transparence Secchiet la reserve de phosphore et d’azote. Revue Roumaine de Biologie–BiologieAnimale 32: 83–91.
Vespremeanu-Stroe A, Zăinescu F, Preoteasa L, Tătui F, Rotaru S, Morhange C, Stoica M, Hanganu J, Timar-Gabor A, Cârdan I & Piotrowska N (2017). Holocene evolution of the Danube delta: An integral reconstruction and a revised chronology. Marine Geology388: 38–61.
Wouters P (2013). International Law–Facilitating Transboundary Water Cooperation, Global Water Partnership (GWP), TEC Background Papers (17), p. 87, ISBN: 978-91-85321-91-9 Retrieved from https://www.gwp.org/globalassets/global/toolbox/publications/background-papers/17-international-law—facilitating-transboundary-water-cooperation-2013-english.pdf Access on March 10, 2018.
Zavadsky I (2006). Water Quality Management in the Danube and Black Sea Region - Policy and Implementation, Umwelt - Schriftenreihe für Ökologie und Ethologie – 32: 44 - 72. ISBN 3-85076-568-7 http://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Umwelt-SchrReiheOek-Eth_32_0044-0072.pdf.
Zinevici V & Parpală L (1987). “L’évolution de l’étattrophique des ecosystèmesaquatiquescaractéristiques au Delta du Danube: 4. La structure et la dynamique du zooplankton.” Rev. Roum. Biol. Anim 32(2): 111–121.
Zinke A (2011). Danube Parks Strategy on Conservation and Navigation.ETC-SEE Project Danube Parks Work Package 3. Retrieved from http://www.danubeparks.org/files/774_DANUBEPARKS_ConservationNavigation.pdf. Accessed on May 25, 2018.
Acknowledgements
This chapter uses data from database of the Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development Tulcea, Romania.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Despina, C. et al. (2020). Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve—Long-Term Assessment of Water Quality. In: Negm, A., Romanescu, G., Zelenakova, M. (eds) Water Resources Management in Balkan Countries. Springer Water. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22468-4_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22468-4_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-22467-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-22468-4
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)