Monitoring of Surface Water Status in the Lower Danube Basin

Water pollution demands emergency actions for better water resource management to respect the concept of sustainable development. The aim of the Water Framework Directive, as long-term water policy of the European Union, is to assure the good quality of surface waters. Each state from Europe has to identify all the river basins lying within their national territory and to assign them to individual river basin districts. In this respect, an effective integrated system and monitoring technology, analysing, interpreting data and utilizing the results to make decisions related to the water resources protection, were developed. The main objectives are focused on the expansion of monitoring activities and obtaining more detailed information on the state of surface waters. Specific recommended equipment which enables to perform the analysis of recommended water quality parameters should be placed on the monitoring stations of the Lower Danube Basin. Respectively, this lack of equipment provides a challenge in the development of effective methodologies for collection and analysis of water quality data. The main priority was the development of an integrated water catchment area management strategy and to build up the online continuous monitoring system. Some of the technical goals for continuous water monitoring were reached in Hungary and Romania and are presented here.