REVIEW OF THE METHODS USED IN STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF PROJECTS OF REGULATIONS ON DETERMINING THE USE OF WATER CONDITIONS IN WATER REGIONS

In Polish legislation, Article 113 of the Water Law Act of 18 July 2001 (Journal of Laws of 2012 item 145, as amended) specifies certain planning documents, which must be made for the purposes of water management planning. One of the planning stages leading to improvement or preservation of good environmental status of water in the individual river basins, is to determinate water use conditions in water regions. There are 21 water regions in Poland, for each one of them, territorially competent Director of the Regional Water Management Authority compiled the project of water use conditions in water regions. Currently, the conditions are being adopted in the form of local law. Pursuant to Article 46 of the Act of 3 October 2008 On the Provision of Information on the Environment and its Protection, Public Participation in Environmental Protection and Environmental Impact Assessment (Journal of Laws of 2013 item 1235, as amended), projects of policies, strategies, plans or programs relating to, inter alia water management, developed or adopted by the authorities, defining the framework for the subsequent implementation of projects that may significantly affect the environment and/or cause a significant impact on a Natura 2000 area, requires strategic environmental assessment. The aim of this study was to determine what methods of assessment are used for the strategic environmental assessment, and what is the range of usage of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in strategic environmental assessment of projects of regulations on determining the conditions for use of water in water regions in Poland. Based on the analysis it can be concluded that in most of the analyzed documents, the assessment criteria are not explicitly defined and not applying quantitative methods of forecasting the impact on the environment makes it impossible to compare the nature and primarily the scale of the impact on the individual components of the environment.Wider use of Geographic Information Systems in strategic environmental assessment is recommended, not only for data visualization but mainly for the use of tools helping to conduct spatial analysis and decision making. The results confirm that methods currently used in strategic environmental assessment are not sufficiently rewarding and provide technical and methodological challenge for experts working on their development. Solving the problem requires the development of more innovative and effective methods of evaluation

RESTRUCTURING OF THE LARGE-SCALE SPRINKLERS

One of the best ways for agriculture to become independent from shortages of precipitation is irrigation. In the seventies and eighties of the last century a number of large-scale sprinklers in Wielkopolska was built. At the end of 1970’s in the Poznan province 67 sprinklers with a total area of 6400 ha were installed. The average size of the sprinkler reached 95 ha. In 1989 there were 98 sprinklers, and the area which was armed with them was more than 10 130 ha. The study was conducted on 7 large sprinklers with the area ranging from 230 to 520 hectares in 1986÷1998. After the introduction of the market economy in the early 90’s and ownership changes in agriculture, large-scale sprinklers have gone under a significant or total devastation. Land on the State Farms of the State Agricultural Property Agency has leased or sold and the new owners used the existing sprinklers to a very small extent. This involved a change in crop structure, demand structure and an increase in operating costs. There has also been a threefold increase in electricity prices. Operation of large-scale irrigation encountered all kinds of barriers in practice and limitations of system solutions, supply difficulties, high levels of equipment failure which is not inclined to rational use of available sprinklers. An effect of a vision of the local area was to show the current status of the remaining irrigation infrastructure. The adopted scheme for the restructuring of Polish agriculture was not the best solution, causing massive destruction of assets previously invested in the sprinkler system

EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF WATER IN RESERVOIRS LATERAL JUTROSIN AND PAKOSŁAW IN THE FIRST YEARS OF OPERATION

Jutrosin and Pakoslaw off-channel reservoirs have been investigated. The water quality in the first years of their usage has been analyzed in connection with the water quality of Orla and Radeca rivers. Pakoslaw and Jutrosin reservoirs were brought into operation in 2007 and 2011. Because of high biogenic pollution in Orla and Radeca rivers, Jutrosin and Pakoslaw reservoirs were based on an innovative concept in which the reservoirs were built on areas directly adjacent to rivers. The scope of this research was to verify the reservoirs’ water management and find out whether any further optimization and advancement in water quality is possible. The results have proven that the current water management scheme allowed to minimize their pollution. Nutrients are absorbed by primary producers (phytoplankton, macrophytes) and deposited in sediments

SEASONAL VARIABILITY OF SELECTED NUTRIENTS IN THE WATERS OF LAKES NIEPRUSZEWSKIE, PAMIATKOWSKIE AND STRYKOWSKIE

The paper presents the evaluation of seasonal and long-term changes in selected nutrients of three lakes of the Poznań Lakeland. The lakes were selected due to the high risk of pollution from agricultural and residential areas. Water samples were taken in 6 control points in the spring, summer and autumn, from 2004 to 2014. Trophic status of the lakes was evaluated based on the concentration of nutrients (nitrates, nitrites, ammonium, nitrogen and phosphorus) and indicators of eutrophication. Studies have shown that the concentration of nutrients varied greatly both in individual years and seasons of the analyzed decades, especially in Lakes Niepruszewskie and Pamiątkowskie. The main problem is the high concentration of nitrates. In general, it showed an upward trend until 2013, especially in the spring. This may indicate that actions restricting runoff pollution from agricultural sources have not been fully effective. On the other hand, a marked downward trend in the concentrations of NH4 over the years from 2004 to 2014, especially after 2007, indicates a gradual improvement of wastewater management. Moreover, seasonal variation in NH4 concentrations differed from those of NO3 and NO2. The highest values were reported in the autumn season, the lowest in the summer. Concentrations of nutrients and eutrophication indexes reached high values in all analysed lakes, indicating a eutrophic or hypertrophic state of the lakes. The high value of the N:P ratio indicates that the lakes had a huge surplus of nitrogen, and phosphorus is a productivity limiting factor

TECHNICAL STATE ASSESSMENT OF THE DRAINAGE FACILITIES IN THE ZAGOROW POLDER

At this work the assessment of state of water drainage conditions and the needs of its maintenance was carried out, as the basis for rational water management in usage of agricultural of Zagorow polder area. Based on field research, it was found that the condition of the 80.8% of the length of canals and ditches, and 40.7% of hydraulic and communication structures is unacceptable and does not meet the accepted criteria. The main reason of such condition of drainage facilities is a long-term exploitation absence or insufficient maintenance work frequency. To restore the proper state of maintenance facilities, in most cases the routine operation is sufficient. Before to the work we should conduct a detailed analysis regarding the necessity of the equipment for the smooth functioning of the drainage system. The analysis should address the current needs of the drainage area taking into account the economic conditions and the needs of environmental protection. On the polders often characterized by large natural values it is recommended to apply the principles of reasonable compromise between maintaining adequate drainage facilities and state of conservation of the natural environment

TECHNO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE OF LAND RECLAMATION PUMPING STATIONS’ ENERGY EFFICIENCY

The energy efficiency of the operation and maintenance of land reclamation pumping stations were conducted at this paper. The study included 12 pump stations located in the southern part of the region of Wielkopolska. All objects are administered by the Great Poland of Land Melioration and Water Units Board in Poznan, District Branch in Leszno. It was found that the work of half of the analyzed pumps is very expensive, and maintenance cost incomparable to the results achieved. Operating costs of the analyzed drainage pumping stations account for 86% of total operating costs, of which 40% is energy cost, and the remaining 14% to the upkeep. Small relative time of operating pumps for leeve and channel pumping stations indicates a for a leap of work, which proves their inefficient use. The use of a larger number of pumps with less power would preserve the continuity and stability of their work

Ground volume assessment using ’Structure from Motion’ photogrammetry with a smartphone and a compact camera

The article describes how the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) method can be used to calculate the volume of anthropogenic microtopography. In the proposed workflow, data is obtained using mass-market devices such as a compact camera (Canon G9) and a smartphone (iPhone5). The volume is computed using free open source software (VisualSFMv0.5.23, CMPMVSv0.6.0., MeshLab) on a PCclass computer. The input data is acquired from video frames. To verify the method laboratory tests on the embankment of a known volume has been carried out. Models of the test embankment were built using two independent measurements made with those two devices. No significant differences were found between the models in a comparative analysis. The volumes of the models differed from the actual volume just by 0.7‰ and 2‰. After a successful laboratory verification, field measurements were carried out in the same way. While building the model from the data acquired with a smartphone, it was observed that a series of frames, approximately 14% of all the frames, was rejected. The missing frames caused the point cloud to be less dense in the place where they had been rejected. This affected the model’s volume differed from the volume acquired with a camera by 7%. In order to improve the homogeneity, the frame extraction frequency was increased in the place where frames have been previously missing. A uniform model was thereby obtained with point cloud density evenly distributed. There was a 1.5% difference between the embankment’s volume and the volume calculated from the camera-recorded video. The presented method permits the number of input frames to be increased and the model’s accuracy to be enhanced without making an additional measurement, which may not be possible in the case of temporary features