Contribution of Czecho‐Slovakia to the chemical time bombs study in the danube catchment area

Abstract

AbstractAn overview is given of the activities of Czecho‐Slovak institutes within the project ‘Long‐term risks for soils, sediments and groundwater in the Danube catchment area,’ as accepted in 1991 by six riparian countries from the Danube basin. the project is divided into: screening maps; analytical methodology; (bio)monitoring; use of geographical information systems (GIS) for data storage and presentation of results; soil vulnerability studies; modelling of processes; and case studies. Twenty‐six tasks are listed, together with authors and addresses of co‐operating organizations included in the Czecho‐Slovakian project. in the initial stages information was gathered to produce maps of hot‐spots in the Czecho‐Slovakian territory of the Danube catchment area. a list of landfill sites is almost ready; surface water pollution for the Danube itself and for the Hron tributary has been evaluated and some proposals for the presentation of the results have been considered. the methodological part of the project summarizes the analytical methods for the groundwater study. Base levels and standards for the comparison of quality have been completed. At present the Water Research Institute is planning to process the results using ILWIS (Integrated Land and Water Information System), which is distributed by ITC (Enschede, The Netherlands) and VITUKI (Hungary). Some administrative and budgetary aspects of the task are considered and the acute need for closer international cooperation is emphasized.