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Vulnerability mapping criteria identification for karstic part of Kupa river catchment area within CAMARO-D project

Water, as one of the most valuable and vulnerable part of the ecosystem, is of a special national interest in the Republic of Croatia. Nearly 90% of the total water quantity used to supply cities and settlements is derived from the groundwater resources. Therefore sustainable development which equally considers goals of water resources protection, spatial and economic growth while adapting them to climate change is of strategic significance and one of the Croatia’s paramount development priorities. As a transboundary river in Danube River Basin, Kupa and its catchment is not only subject of national but also transnational efforts of finding synergy and balance between rational land use, water conservation and flood risk prevention. Such transnational endeavours are encompassed with the CAMARO-D project (Interreg Danube), which develops a transnational catchment-based “Land Use Development Plan” (LUDP) for an adequate coordination and harmonization of different function-oriented sustainable land-use management activities. With the aim of overcoming main integrative management issues of Kupa river catchment, decision makers are faced with adverse land use and flood impacts within area of still insufficiently explored hydrogeological complex, so-called “the shallow karst”. In order to preserve intrinsic values of the water resources within the catchment area, the proclamation of certain protection categories is envisaged through legislation and protection instruments on various levels, such as nature and environment protection acts and physical planning documents, while protective and regulative water infrastructure (e.g. flood defence, melioration and water supply infrastructure etc.) are proclaimed as of importance for the state and county. Nonetheless, key stakeholder i.e. population being not inclined to changes, still hasn’t adjusted its land-use practices to hydrotechnical objects built in the recent past, which have strongly modified hydrological system and water regime (e.g. redistribution of flood prone areas). On that account, within CAMARO-D our focus will be on initiating site specific innovative solutions in the form of best management practices based on hydrogeological field investigations and vulnerability mapping of Kupa river catchment area. An insight into the hydrogeology of the area will be obtained with in situ measurements of physio-chemical parameters on main spring, surface and rain water, in monthly intervals and hydrochemical laboratory analyses. In this paper a comprehensive vulnerability assessment will be carried out with the help of GIS tools by compiling and overlapping layers of natural vulnerability and potential hazards of anthropogenic origin. Overall results will be introduced to stakeholders in the form of a catalogue of measures through various communication activities targeted at raising awareness and encouraging stakeholder involvement on a local, regional and national level.

vulnerability, hydrogeology, karst, Kupa river catchment area, CAMARO-D

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