Water quality modeling in bērze river catchment

Abstract

The paper describes water quality modeling approaches for the mid-sized river (1001000 km²) catchment in Latvia. The hydro-chemical data (2005 to 2010) in 15 subcatchments of Bērze River (872 km²) represent water quality and land use type-specific concentrations. Water sampling shows that significant pollution results from management of organic manure and intensive agriculture, where the maximum concentrations of nitrate nitrogen are 9.2 and 18.1 mg l⁻¹ reaching or exceeding the limit established by the EU Nitrates Directive of 11.3 mg l⁻¹. The application of pollution load source apportionment could be useful for decision making to set up the action plans for the implementation of appropriate pollution reduction measures.

First published online: 14 May 2013