Assessment and Research of River Restoration Processes in Regulated Streams of Southeastern Lithuania

Survilė, Oksana; Šaulys, Valentinas; Bagdžiūnaitė-Litvinaitienė, Lina; Stankevičienė, Rasa; Litvinaitis, Andrius; Stankevičius, Mindaugas

doi:10.15244/pjoes/61699

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…In order to restore a disturbed hydrological and environmental balance of regulated streams it is important to retain their drainage function without increasing maintenance costs. Therefore, seeking to improve self-purification of streams the so-called soft naturalization measures are suggested: to allow woody vegetation grow on river slopes, to form natural obstacles for water flow, and other elements in flood plains that are characteristic to wetlands [2,42]. The research evaluates the water quality of streams only in terms of nitrate and phosphate concentrations in water, but many other physicochemical, hydro morphological, and biological parameters, for instance organic fraction of nutrients that also have a significant impact on a river s ecological status should be taken into consideration to fully assess the ecological status of the river and differences in the ecological status of natural and regulated streams.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Assessment of Self-Purification in Streams

Šaulys

Survilė

Stankevičienė

2019

Water

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The territory of Lithuania is characterized by a prevailing moisture excess, therefore in order to timely remove excess water from arable lands, the drainage systems have long been installed. In order to drain excess water people used to dig trenches, to regulate (deepen or straighten) natural streams. The length of regulated streams has reached 46,000 km and they are deteriorated ecosystems. Investigations showed that the self-purification of streams from nitrates and phosphates is more effective in natural stretches than in stretches regulated for drainage purposes. Decrease in the average concentration of nitrates in natural and regulated stretches are 8.8 ± 5.0 and 3.0 ± 2.9 mg NO 3 − L−1, respectively. The average coefficient of nitrate self-purification, at a confidence level of 95% in natural stream stretches is 0.50 ± 0.22, and in regulated is −0.15 ± 0.21 km−1, and this difference is essential. The change in the average concentration of phosphates in natural and regulated stretches is almost the same, 0.2 ± 0.1 and 0.2 ± 0.2 mg PO 4 3 − L−1, respectively. The average coefficient of phosphate self-purification, at a confidence level of 95%, in natural stream stretches is 0.28 ± 0.12, in regulated −0.14 ± 0.12 km−1, and this difference is not essential. In terms of the need for the renovation of drainage systems it is suggested that soft naturalization measures are first applied in the streams of Western (Samogitian) Highlands, Coastal Lowlands, and South-Eastern Highlands to improve their self-purification processes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%