58
I. G. Breaban and A. I. Breaban
earth, of which only 30.8% is found in groundwater systems, and 0.3% is directly
available in rivers and lakes. According to the Directive 2000/60/EC of the European
Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action in
the field of water policy the “Water is not a commercial product like any other but,
rather, a heritage which must be protected, defended and treated as such”. Why
is water quality so important? The main point of view is the fact that the fresh
water is scarce (only 3% of the world’s water is suitable for domestic use (drinking,
irrigation, …etc.) of which 2% is found in ice and glaciers. Consequently, only 1% of
the earth’s water is accessible and drinkable!). From other point of view, nowadays a
large number of chemicals are used in our everyday lives and in commerce, making
their way into our waters. Another difficult task to achieve is the assessment of longterm changes in water quality over the last decades, with increasing demand for
water quality monitoring in many rivers through regular measurements of different
physicochemical and biological quality of water. Monitoring activities have led to
the gradual accumulation of valuable long-term information on water quality, and the
study of these data has led to the development of future scenarios of the long-term
evolution of freshwater quality.
Water is vital to life, promoting life in many ways. At first, there is no need to
clarify further how important it is, but nevertheless, water pollution is one of the
most serious environmental threats that humanity faces today. Protecting fresh water
resources requires the diagnosis of threats on a large scale, from the local to the
global level.
In accordance with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD),
to identify the quality of water bodies, it is necessary to know the anthropic pressure
created on water resources in order to adopt appropriate measures for the protection
and conservation of water in Romania, which has multiple cross-border boundaries in
the form of rivers. A growing literature on the water quality is driven due to increasing
challenges related to both water scarcity and poor water distribution, the quantity and
quality of water being the cause of concern in the last period of time (Fig. 3.1). It was
found that 378 articles dealt with the use of water pollution in Romania between 1992
and 2018, after 2005 the number of papers increased significantly from 9 to 51 in
2015. Although 250 journals have published studies using water pollution Romania,
10 journals published them much more often, with 52% of all publications. The
International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference: SGEM published the most
(47 papers), followed by Environmental Engineering and Management Journal (42
papers), Revista de Chimie and Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology (29
papers each), Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences (16 papers)
and other 5 journals that published between 4 and 10 papers.
More and more nations are beginning to face difficulties in water supply due to
the increased water needs of agriculture and industry, along with poor management
or a lack of water management. Pollution caused by various industrial activities, the
development of urban areas as well as the presence of non-point sources generated
by agriculture and cattle farms, has favoured the deterioration of water quality. Given
the increasingly serious concerns about water quality, scientific research has focused
on this topic at all levels of importance: global, regional or local (Fig. 3.2).
I. G. Breaban and A. I. Breaban
earth, of which only 30.8% is found in groundwater systems, and 0.3% is directly
available in rivers and lakes. According to the Directive 2000/60/EC of the European
Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action in
the field of water policy the “Water is not a commercial product like any other but,
rather, a heritage which must be protected, defended and treated as such”. Why
is water quality so important? The main point of view is the fact that the fresh
water is scarce (only 3% of the world’s water is suitable for domestic use (drinking,
irrigation, …etc.) of which 2% is found in ice and glaciers. Consequently, only 1% of
the earth’s water is accessible and drinkable!). From other point of view, nowadays a
large number of chemicals are used in our everyday lives and in commerce, making
their way into our waters. Another difficult task to achieve is the assessment of longterm changes in water quality over the last decades, with increasing demand for
water quality monitoring in many rivers through regular measurements of different
physicochemical and biological quality of water. Monitoring activities have led to
the gradual accumulation of valuable long-term information on water quality, and the
study of these data has led to the development of future scenarios of the long-term
evolution of freshwater quality.
Water is vital to life, promoting life in many ways. At first, there is no need to
clarify further how important it is, but nevertheless, water pollution is one of the
most serious environmental threats that humanity faces today. Protecting fresh water
resources requires the diagnosis of threats on a large scale, from the local to the
global level.
In accordance with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD),
to identify the quality of water bodies, it is necessary to know the anthropic pressure
created on water resources in order to adopt appropriate measures for the protection
and conservation of water in Romania, which has multiple cross-border boundaries in
the form of rivers. A growing literature on the water quality is driven due to increasing
challenges related to both water scarcity and poor water distribution, the quantity and
quality of water being the cause of concern in the last period of time (Fig. 3.1). It was
found that 378 articles dealt with the use of water pollution in Romania between 1992
and 2018, after 2005 the number of papers increased significantly from 9 to 51 in
2015. Although 250 journals have published studies using water pollution Romania,
10 journals published them much more often, with 52% of all publications. The
International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference: SGEM published the most
(47 papers), followed by Environmental Engineering and Management Journal (42
papers), Revista de Chimie and Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology (29
papers each), Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences (16 papers)
and other 5 journals that published between 4 and 10 papers.
More and more nations are beginning to face difficulties in water supply due to
the increased water needs of agriculture and industry, along with poor management
or a lack of water management. Pollution caused by various industrial activities, the
development of urban areas as well as the presence of non-point sources generated
by agriculture and cattle farms, has favoured the deterioration of water quality. Given
the increasingly serious concerns about water quality, scientific research has focused
on this topic at all levels of importance: global, regional or local (Fig. 3.2).