Ecological risk assessment for the Protva river ecosystem in the vicinity of the water treatment plant

Abstract

This paper introduces a new technology of ecological status of river ecosystems assessment in the presence of man-made burden of treatment facilities. The technology of ecological risk assessment includes:identifing the referent of the biota and its response to pollution; the construction of dose response determination based on these values of critical loads on the ecosystem. The final stage of this process is the calculation by using GIS technology magnitude of risk and its comparison with the acceptable values. It is shown that in a selected area of the river ecological risk is not acceptable (risk > 10%, while acceptable risk ≤ 5%). This implies a disappointing forecast for the functioning of the ecosystem over the next 50-100 years.

Keywords

• ecological risk
• referential kinds
• critical loadings
• criterion of an acceptability