Integrated River Basin Management of the Southern Baltic Rivers

Geographical location:

Europe/Middle-East > -Regions- > Baltic Sea

Europe/Middle-East > Eastern Europe > Belarus
Europe/Middle-East > Eastern Europe > Czech Republic
Europe/Middle-East > Eastern Europe > Poland
Europe/Middle-East > Eastern Europe > Ukraine
Europe/Middle-East > West Central Europe > Germany

Summary

Polish rivers with large natural and extensively used areas of high biodiversity and natural dynamics are typical for Poland. Species which are rare or have become extinct in many areas of Western Europe are still common or have substantial populations in Poland. Poland, due to its size of around 312 000 km2, high variety of habitats and species richness, plays an important role in maintaining the biodiversity of the Baltic Sea ecoregion. The vast majority of Poland (99.7%) belongs to the Baltic Sea catchment. For this reason the catchments of Vistula and Oder rivers have crucial role for stability of the Baltic Sea.

The goal of the project is to develop an integrated river basin management (IRBM) schemes for Vistula, Oder and Polish costal rivers as a model for Southern Baltic rivers.

The project includes both building conceptual and legal basis for the IRBM in Poland as well as the model implementation on 3 types of rivers:
- Transboundary river Oder, chosen because of typical cross border situation.
- Large natural river Vistula, chosen because of natural character of the river bed.
- Small natural river Biebrza, chosen as an example of relatively small river.

Background

The area covered by the project includes basins of 2 large rivers: the Oder basin (governed by the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland), and the Vistula basin, as well as basins of small rivers directly flowing into the Baltic Sea. The 400 km of the relatively intact middle sections of the Vistula river, with the braided course and natural river bed dynamics, represent the largest in Europe for a river preserved in such a good status. The riparian forests in Oder valley in terms of the area they cover and the degree of their naturalness, represent the best preserved ecosystem of that type in Europe. In addition to the Vistula and the Oder rivers, there are also well preserved sections of smaller rivers (e.g. Warta, Narew, Bug, Liwiec, Pilica) or the whole river valleys (e.g. Biebrza valley). They retain many natural features of the river bed and its dynamics. Seen as functional units, the Vistula and Oder basins represents one the most precious freshwater ecosystems in Europe and in many ways could be considered as reference areas within the climatic zone of Europe they belong to.

WWF has been working on freshwater in Poland since the beginning of 1990s. In 1990-1993 WWF was engaged in establishing the Biebrza national park. The Green Belt Oder-Neisse project resulted in 100.000 ha of new protected areas on both sites of the Polish-German border. Involvement of local society in the preparation of a sustainable development vision for the Warta mouth region in another WWF project enabled to establish a new national park in 2001. In last years, 3 projects were in operation: Biebrza National Park, Vistula and Oder.

Objectives

General objective

Develop an integrated river basin management (IRBM) scheme for Vistula, Oder, Biebrza and Polish coastal rivers as a model for Southern Baltic rivers.

Specific objectives

1. Prepare implementation of the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD). Water management authorities in Poland use the opportunities coming from the WFD in the IRBM approach.

2. Implement ecologically sound flood management measures to stop and reverse floodplain degradation.

3. Stop or/and reorientate major water infrastructure projects at Vistula, Oder and other rivers of high ecological value.

4. Stop and reorientate small-scale engineering schemes destructive for unique, on European scale, processes of natural river bed dynamics that occur in Vistula and Oder basins.

5. Establish a network of protected areas in river valleys and improve nature conservation measures.

6. Restore wetlands and improve river continuity.

7. Reduce inflow of pollutants and nutrients to the Baltic Sea, minimizing impact of agriculture on water pollution in Poland as a result of EU accession (Common Agriculutre Policy - Common Agricultural Policy), and decreasing industrial and communal water pollution.

8. Promote sustainable use of river valleys.

Solution

The project is a further development of the above mentioned projects and is moving towards integrated river basin management (IRBM). Through the issue of water pollution the project is involved into conservation of the Baltic Sea ecoregion.

The structure of the project consists of 2 levels of activities:
1. Preparation of conceptual, legal and institutional basis for IRBM.
2. Sub-projects for model implementations of the crucial issues in regional or local projects in Oder, Vistula and Biebrza catchments.