During three years, experts from Moldova have developed new instruments for the joint monitoring of nonpoint source pollutants and litter and for the identification of their sources and volumes. Innovative technologies were applied in the assessment of soil erosion and sediments in Moldova. As a study area for addressing the project’s tasks in Moldova, the Bălțata River — a fairly typical small river of Moldova — was selected. The research and activities were carried out within a project implemented by the “Eco-Tiras” International Environmental Association of River Keepers.
In a news conference hosted by IPN, “Eco-Tiras” executive director Ilya Trombitski, doctor of biological sciences, said the project is implemented within the EU INTERREG IV “Joint Operational Program Black Sea Basin 2014-2020”. The main partner is the lawful successor of the International Hellenic University in Kavala, Greece. Four institutions from the Black Sea Region were involved in the implementation of the project: the Buzău-Ialomița Water Basin Administration of Romania; the NGO Union of Young Foresters of Armenia; the “Eco-Tiras” International Environmental Association of River Keepers of Moldova, and the Artvin Coruh University of Turkey.
“To exist along a common sea, sustainable water management is necessary and particular countries from the neighborhood should adopt joint methods and practices. This is one of the strong points of our common project as the implementation partners are from five different countries and the activities are carried out in all the participating states. The overall objective was the environment protection and reduction of pollutants and litter in Black Sea. This can be achieved by focusing on internal pollutants and litter, especially from the hydrological basins of the rivers that flow into the Black Seas,” noted Ilya Trombitski.
According to him, there was chosen the basin of the Bălțată River, which is a right tributary of the Dniester River, which flows into the Black Sea where all surface pollution and litter that enter its main stream are directly transported to. From the project’s viewpoint two factors were important here: the high level of soils degradation and their intensive erosion processes (above 29%).
In the project there were used two hydrological models: SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) and WEPP (Water Erosion Prediction Project). Their implementation pursued a specific task for each: SWAT was aimed at estimating the current and expected Bălțata flow as the main transporter of pollution, while WEPP modeling was aimed at stimulating soil loss and sediment yield in the basin.
Remote sensing techniques in the identification and mapping erosion-prone areas were also applied. The normalized difference indexes quantify the presence of a certain material entity in a remote sensing image based on the differences in this entity’s reflectance in different spectral intervals.
Olga Crivova, expert of the project, said that they also used the RUSLE method – Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation. The resulting RUSLE model for the project area allows to estimate stream banks susceptibility to erosion. The right bank of the Baltata River has the largest share of steep slopes in the entire river basin. However, due to the fact that the same area accounts for most of the extended areas with forests, as well as half of the orchards and vineyards of the basin, the annual loss of soil under these plantations is quite small. At the same time, where the protective effect of the vegetation cover is absent, we observed the most prone to erosion zone - to the south of the village of Baltata.
To identify the sources of suspended sediments in the Bălțata River, the fingerprint method was used. This method relates the physical or geochemical properties of sediments to corresponding sources within the watershed, based on two major assumptions: potential sediment sources are distinguished by some fingerprinting properties, and relative source contributions to suspended sediment can be determined by comparing sediment imprinting properties with source material samples. The footprint assessment included assessment of total sediment contributions from three primary sources: hillslopes, gullies and riverbanks.
The project “Protecting streams for a clean Black Sea by reducing sediment and litter pollution with joint innovative monitoring and control tools and nature-based practices BSB963)” was implemented during July 2020 – July 2023. The project is financed as part of the EU INTERREG IV “Joint Operational Program Black Sea Basin 2014-2020”. The total budget for the five countries involved in the project is over €907,000, with over €834,000 being the European Union’s contribution.
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