Рад у часопису

објављена верзија

енглески

Zoran Stevanović, Aleksandra Maran Stevanović, Želimir Pekaš, Romeo Eftimi, Veljko Marinović

Environmental flows and demands for sustainable water use in protected karst areas of the Western Balkans

Carbonates and Evaporites

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

2021

Karst terrains cover some 30% of the Western Balkans, where rich karst aquifers represent the main source of potable water supply and ensure the development of local economies and tourism. In this “classical karst” region, there are also numerous sites or areas under different forms of protection—from those that are included in the UNESCO World Heritage list to natural monuments and landscapes that are protected by national legislation. In and around them are specific representatives of flora and fauna that largely include endemic species. Although the area is relatively rich in surface and groundwater resources, demand for water is permanently increasing as a result of tourism expansion, intensive agriculture and urbanisation especially along the Adriatic Coast. Improper solid waste management and lack of wastewater treatment plants are the main threats to the quality of water and biodiversity. Establishing a proper balance between the extraction of water and its provision to dependant eco-systems is one of the main challenges, and appropriate requests have been included in many recently prepared River Basin Management Plans of concerned countries. Based on collected and evaluated data from 26 selected protected areas and sites located in 6 countries of the region, this study evaluates the situation and pressures on water quantity and quality on existing ecosystems. Some experiences from current legislation imposed in the study area enable to distinguish two main groups of pressure on water quantity and quality: natural (intrinsic) and anthropogenic, each with the three levels of pressure: low, medium and high. The high pressure from water abstraction has been established at six studied protected sites, while high pressure on water quality resulting from human activity is present at nine of them. There is also a discussion about possible measures that could enable further sustainable development of the aquifer systems, and some measures to protect the local ecosystems.

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10.1007/s13146-021-00754-1

0891-2556

Karst, Zaštićena područja, Ekosistem, Ranjivost i održivost, Zapadni Balkan

Karst, Protected areas, Ecosystem, Vulnerability and sustainability, Western Balkans

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13146-021-00754-1.pdf

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М22

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