engleski

MANAGEMENT OF KARST AQUIFERS IN THE AREA BETWEEN TRIESTE AND KVARNER BAYS (Slovenian-Croatian transboundary area)

Slovenia is a typical karst country in which carbonate rocks cover around 43 % of the land. Karst water resources are especially important as they supply around half of the Slovene citizens with drinking water. Therefore the researches of karst waters have been an important task in the past and are becoming more and more important also for the future. The main question is how to use and protect karst water resources properly. To be efficient in this it is necessary to consider specific characteristics of karst aquifers. Due to their heterogeneous structure and complex functioning (unknown routes of the underground flow, bifurcation, the changes in the size of the recharge area at different hydrological conditions. ...) it is by no means an easy task to identify these characteristics. One of the biggest problems is how to define the borders of the recharge area of individual karst springs. And scientific problem becomes also political when these recharge areas spread across two or more countries. In the south-western part Slovenia borders on two countries: Italy and Croatia. In the area between the Trieste bay and the Kvamer bay of the Adriatic sea state borders cross karst aquifers which are important sources of drinking water in all three countries. The biggest towns in the area are supplied by groundwater from these aquifers (e.g. Koper and other towns on the Slovene Coast from the Rižana karst spring. Rijeka in Croatia from several karst springs, among them also Riječina and Zvir. Buzet in Croatia from Sv. Ivan spring). One exception is Trieste in Italy. In the past the Timava karst spring was captured for the water supply of this town but due to the deterioration of its quality new sources were found in porous aquifers of the Soca/Isonzo alluvium. Common characteristic of mentioned karst springs is their transboundary character. At least partly their recharge area is in one country and abstraction point in the other. Therefore mutual and transboundary research activities and further management measures are indispensable. In the past first steps in this direction were made through different forms of scientific co-operation between research institutions from different countries, and on legal and institutional levels further activities are enhanced by the recommendations of the EU Water Framework Directive.

Karst aquifers; Water resources; Transboundary research

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