The effect of selected inviolable flow characteristics on the results of environmental analysis using the example of river absorption capacity

Abstract

The parameter River Absorption Capacity (RAC) is understood as the load of pollutants introduced into a given river section which will not cause permanent and irreversible changes in the aquatic ecosystem nor change the classification of water quality in a given river calculation profile. The paper presents a method of determining the RAC using the Macromodel DNS/SWAT developed at IMGW-PIB. The selection of an appropriate inviolable flow plays an important role in calculating RAC. Therefore, the article presents the calculations for the three different non-invasive flows: Mean low flow (MLF – the Kostrzewa method), 7Q10 and Tennant. The results obtained in these ways are different from each other. The concept of ‘environmental flows’ continues to evolve in response to these challenges, emphasizing aquatic and riparian ecosystems as legitimate water users within an Integrated Water Resources Management. The analysis has shown that the choice of relevant data for environmental computation is decisive and the use of purely statistical methods to protect biological life in rivers is insufficient. Thus, the use of environmental flows to better describe the specifics of the analyzed basins seems to be most beneficial.