Seminar on “Heavily modified water bodies and good ecological potential”

On 7 November 2014 in Sofia, a seminar was held on the topic of “Heavily Modified Water Bodies and Good Ecological potential”, targeted at experts from the Water Management Directorate at the MOEW and the four Basin Directorates, with regards to the implementation of activities within the project for “Intercalibration of the Methods for Analysis of the Biological Quality Elements (BQE) for the types of surface waters on the territory of Bulgaria, corresponding to common European types in the Geographical intercalibration groups”. The leading lecturer during the seminar was Mr. Robert Konecny, team leader on the project. The following main topics were presented and discussed:

• The Austrian approach for elaboration of a suitable definition of Good Ecological Potential (GEP), including the necessary mitigating measures;
• Assessment of the ecological potential (Austrian approach);
• Requirements for assessing river continuity and defining ecological flow minimum (Austrian approach);
• Comparison between the Austrian and Bulgarian parts of the Danube River. Is the lower Danube heavily modified?