A Monitoring System For Torrential Regime Rivers: First Results Of The Action Taken On Basento River.

Abstract The aquatic environmental protection from degradation due to human activities must be based on a monitoring program that allows for water quality assessment as a function of basin pollution sources and river self-cleaning capacity . The objectives of the research are: firstly, to set up a basin scale water quality monitoring program, secondly, obtain a baseline water quality evaluation and thirdly, identify and analyse the relations between water quality and pollution discharges from the basin . The design of the technical monitoring program on a local scale requires the determining of the location of sampling stations, sampling procedure for water, control parameters and the selection of temporal frequencies . A preliminary campaign was carried out to validate the water sampling methodology by exploring the transversal and vertical changes of dissolved oxygen concentration in the river cross section. A dissolved oxygen profile along the river put the emphasis on the minimum oxygen values, representative of organic load pollution peaks, and on the river's capacity for recovering. A monthly monitoring program has been going on since April 1997, focusing on water quality assessment .