Simulation and trend analysis of the water quality monitoring daily data in Nestos River delta. Contribution to the sustainable management and results for the years 2000-2002

Abstract

The transboundary River Nestos in the Balkan Peninsula is a surface water resource shared by Hellas and Bulgaria. The Public Power Corporation of Hellas (DEH) proceeded to the dams' construction of Thesaurus in 1997 and Platanovrissi in 2000, to satisfy the increased needs for power production and irrigation in the Regions of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace in the Hellenic Territory. DEH following the Ministerial Agreement of the Hellenic Parliament "KYA 18492/19-09-1996'' funded a series of Research Projects concerned on the monitoring of the water quantity and quality data of Nestos from the Hellenic-Bulgarian borders to its estuaries in the Thracian sea. "PERSEAS'' Research Group from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, carried out the research, design, construction, installation, operation and maintenance of the "R.E.MO.S.'' (Remote Environmental MOnitoring System) networks. Three REMOS networks have been installed in the areas of (a) the River Nestos deltaic channel, (b) Thesaurus dam-lake in the intramountainous valley and (c) Potamoi (Despat) and Pagoneri (Nestos) villages close to the borders between Hellas and Bulgaria. They record water level (H), water and air temperature (T), water conductivity (ECw), Redox potential (RP) and dissolved oxygen (DO) on a 24h basis, since the beginning of the year 2000. The research carried out in this paper, is focused on the REMOS station in the final course of Nestos in the deltaic area. The continuous monitoring and the data analysis yield useful results for the quality and quantity of the hydrologic regime of Nestos after the dams' construction, as well as for the trends detected of the quality parameters (ECw, RP and DO) and the water level, using the nonparametric Spearman's criterion. The best fitted model of time trend, for each variable, was chosen. The statistical sample of each one of the quality variables consisted of about 1000 values based on daily measures on a three years monitoring program (1/1/2000-31/12/2002). Further research and analysis for the other network stations of REMOS should provide useful results for the sustainable management of the transboundary River Nestos.