DETERMINATION OF WATER RESOURCES IN RIVERS IN THE BULGARIAN BASINS OF THE LOWER DANUBE

Abstract

Object of the study is surface water bodies from category “rivers” according to Water Framework Directive 2000/60/ЕС. Surface water assessment is important for number of activities such as: water management in the country, making reports to international agencies, determining the change of the resources in the light of upcoming climate changes. The determination of water resources is based on information of hydrometric stations from the monitoring network system in the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology — Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (NIMH-BAS) in which real ongoing and available water flows that are subject of management are registered. In the study a technology for surface water bodies in the Bulgarian basins of the lower Danube is applied which has been developed in the frame of cooperative project together with the Ministry of Environment and Water. This is absolutely true for the Bulgarian section of the Danube River basin which is expressed in big number and variety of hydrological homogeneous sections. The river flow is characterized with annual and inter-annual variability determined by climatic factors and anthropogenic influences. The main obtained results of the present hydrologic studies are the usage of transferred information from gauged to ungauged watersheds and the estimation of the surface water bodies’ resources using original regression relationships based on multiannual hydrological information from the NIMH-BAS monitoring network. The relationships delineate the hydrological homogeneous areas with similar conditions of flow formation. The estimated resources have significant usefulness for all State institutions managing the water in the Danube basin and have already been introduced in the operative and management practice.