Environmental Sustainability of the Lopota River in Eastern Georgia against the Background of the Growing Anthropogenic Load

Abstract

We studied the ecological state of the Lopota River in Eastern Georgia. The study showed that the results of microbiological and chemical contamination do not experience significant changes, and mainly are within the acceptable range of concentration, although a pronounced difference is observed among individual performances over the entire flow. An increase in the anthropogenic pollution of the river is observed in summer time. Downstream the Alazani River the concentration of major cations ((K+,Na+,Mg2+,Ca2+), anions (SO42-, Cl- HCO3-, CO32-) and biogenic elements (NO2, NO3-, NH4+, PO43-) is increasing. As a result, the Lopota River is subjected to anthropogenic influence and faecal contamination. However, despite this, the ecological state of the river is satisfactory, due the turbulent flow of the river and good aeration. In addition, the increase in turbidity creates favourable conditions for sorption water purification. All this contributes to self-purification capacity of the river.

Keywords

• Lopota River
• anthropogenic pollution
• salinity
• self-purification of water bodies