Search

Serbia is landlocked country with territory of 88,361 km2 primarily draining through the Danube River/Black Sea Basin. The rivers Tisa, Sava and Velika Morava are three significant tributaries flowing into the Danube River on the territory of Serbia. The dominant natural conditions influencing water resources in the country include characteristics of moderately continental climate, with average monthly air temperature ranging from 0 °C in the winter to 23 °C in the summer, and average annual precipitation sum of 720 mm. The relief changes from mountaneous forms in the south, east and west, over hilly-mountaneous in the central part surrounding the Morava River valleys, to the plain in the north of the country. Geological structure of Serbia is distinctively complex, predominant automorphic soils quickly drain excess water, and forest land is present on one third of the territory with deciduous trees as prevailing forest type. Such natural conditions provide for the average river network density of 747 m/km2, a few natural lakes from the most famous Palic (5.6 km2) to a tiny karstic lake Vrmdža, and groundwater accumulation estimated to potentially utilizable 67 m3/s. The primary water resources utilization sectors in the country are water supply and hydro-power production. Water supply for population and industry is currently distributed from numerous local groundwater and surface water sources, together with 18 regional water supply systems. Hydropower provides for almost one third of the total electricity production in Serbia, with lead hydropower plant being Djerdap I on the Danube River. Irrigation in agriculture holds great, yet insufficiently utilized potential, because the soil and climatic conditions favour many cereals, industrial and fodder plants, fruits and vegetables. In this sector, with present water consumption of 1,600 m3/ha per year Serbia is behind its neighbouring countries. The same stands for water transport, present up to 5% in the total load transport in Serbia nowadays. However, the traffic of passengers and the number of cruise ships have been steadily increasing in the last two decades. Tourism, sports and recreation on rivers and lakes, together with spa tourism play an important role in the overall tourist offer of the country. Also, a promising sector in water utilization in Serbia is fish farming, which together with catch in fishing waters satisfy almost 1/2 of the domestic needs. The chapter describes legislation, regulatory and institutional framework for water utilization, and provides the detailed data and information about natural conditions, as well as the latest monitoring data on water resources quantity and quality significant for water utilization in Serbia. The data and information are mapped and many indicators crucial for understanding commercial, economic and other activities related to water utilization are presented.

Climate change has led to concerns about increasing river floods resulting from the greater water-holding capacity of a warmer atmosphere1. These concerns are reinforced by evidence of increasing economic losses associated with flooding in many parts of the world, including Europe2. Any changes in river floods would have lasting implications for the design of flood protection measures and flood risk zoning. However, existing studies have been unable to identify a consistent continental-scale climatic-change signal in flood discharge observations in Europe3, because of the limited spatial coverage and number of hydrometric stations. Here we demonstrate clear regional patterns of both increases and decreases in observed river flood discharges in the past five decades in Europe, which are manifestations of a changing climate. Our results—arising from the most complete database of European flooding so far—suggest that: increasing autumn and winter rainfall has resulted in increasing floods in northwestern Europe; decreasing precipitation and increasing evaporation have led to decreasing floods in medium and large catchments in southern Europe; and decreasing snow cover and snowmelt, resulting from warmer temperatures, have led to decreasing floods in eastern Europe. Regional flood discharge trends in Europe range from an increase of about 11 per cent per decade to a decrease of 23 per cent. Notwithstanding the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the observational record, the flood changes identified here are broadly consistent with climate model projections for the next century4,5, suggesting that climate-driven changes are already happening and supporting calls for the consideration of climate change in flood risk management. Analysis of a comprehensive European flood dataset reveals regional changes in river flood discharges in the past five decades that are consistent with models suggesting that climate-driven changes are already happening.

The aim of this research is to emphasize the impact of extreme hydrological phenomena on thesustainable management of water-related societal needs. Therefore, it provides a definition of extreme hydrological events, as well as a survey of extreme hydrological events in the Republic of Serbia. It also gives a brief overview of Agenda 2030 with particular respect to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No 6 and highlights the impacts of extreme hydrological phenomena on the water resources, both from the perspective of the ecosystem and the society. Root-cause analysis and synthesis of data related to extreme hydrological events that occurred in the Republic of Serbia for characteristic years have been used as primary methods. The conclusion highlights the necessity of ensuring sustainable management of water resources in order to achieve the desired state of human well-being, as well as a healthy ecosystem. Keywords: extreme hydrological events, ecosystem services, sustainability, water resources, management

More intense rainfall may cause a range of negative impacts upon society and the environment. In this study we analysed trends in extreme ETCCDI (Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices) rainfall indices in Montenegro for the period between 1951 and 2010. Montenegro has been poorly studied in terms of rainfall extremes, yet it contains the wettest Mediterranean region known as Krivošije. Several indices of precipitation extremes were assessed including the number of dry days and rainfall totals in order to identify trends and possible changes. A spatial pattern relationship between extreme rainfall indices and the North Atlantic Oscillation has also been examined. The results generally suggest that the number of days with precipitation decreased while rainfall intensity increased, particularly in south-western parts of the country. A slight tendency towards intense rainfall events is suggested. The examined rainfall indices and North Atlantic Oscillation over Montenegro seemed to be directly linked to changes in one of the major large-scale circulation modes such as the NAO pattern that is particularly evident during the winter season.

The fluvial process is characterized by an intense meandering riverbed. The aim of this study was to perform a reconstruction of the lateral migration of a 15 km length of an active meandering river during the period 1930-2016. River morphological changes were analyzed and quantified from cadastral maps and aerial photographs as well as by geodetic survey and GIS. Hydrological characteristics and extreme hydrological events were evaluated in relation to bank erosion rate. The rate of bank erosion was markedly different from the long-term studied meanders, just like in the short-term period. During the 87 years of observation (from 1930 to 2016), the length of the Kolubara River was enlarged by 3.44 km. The average migration rate of the Kolubara River for monitored meanders in the period 1930-2010 was 1.9 myear(-1), while in the period 2010-2016, the average migration rate was 3.3 myear(-1). The rate of bank erosion was more intensive across the entire short-term period than during the longer period, and the maximum annual rate of bank erosion during the period 2010-2016 varied between 0.3 and 11.5 m. It is very likely that in the period from 2010, frequent discharge variations and rapid change of its extreme values caused more intensive bank erosion. These research results will be valuable for river channel management, engineering (soft and hard engineering), and planning purposes (predicting changes in river channel form) in the Kolubara River Basin.

The previous methodology of sampling and determining the suspended sediment con­cen­tration (SSC) in the rivers of Serbia is characterized by a number of disadvantages, so that any re­search of this kind has a large water management impact. In the largest number of hydrological stations in Serbia, daily SSC were obtained based on only one sampling, which raises the question of the representativeness of such sample. Previous SSC – water discharge relationship and detailed analyses of errors in calculating the suspended sediment transport on the profile of Draževac were done for the year of 2004, when the annual difference was very high, which required a very detailed ana­lysis and methodological improvements. In order to define the sediment regime in the Kolubara River, precise monitoring of SSC has been implemented since 2013. The Kolubara River has an unfavourable water regime which is reflected in the excessiveness of water runoff, with floods that are sudden, expressive and short-term, and long-term low waters, so, that are why it is cha­rac­terized by a large discharge and SSC variability. Incidentally, monitoring also covered the year of 2014, when the area of western Serbia (in particular the Kolubara River Basin) was under the influence of extreme climate events that strongly reflected on the hydrological condition with the absolute highest daily discharge. A total of 220 water samples were collected on Draževac gauging station in 2014, in order to determine SSC and sediment discharge. The total number of days covered was 206, which means that there were even more samplings per day, when the discharge was changing fast. The minimal daily measured SSC was only 0.0016 g/l and the maxi­mal recorded value of SSC was 2.6122 g/l and was measured in May at the water discharge of 1 260 m3/s. Тhe total amount of sus­pended sediment discharge at the profile of Draževac in 2014 was 1 104 435 t (the spe­ci­fic suspended sediment yield – 308 t/sqkm/yr). The main objective of this study is to improve SSC – water discharge relationship in the Kolubara River based on the extreme hydrological conditions in 2014.

This paper presents the results of multi-criteria ranking of the Danube water quality along its course through Serbia by using PROMETHEE/GAIA method. The ranking was based on the values of the water quality parameters measured at eight measuring stations on the Danube River in 2010. For the purposes of the investigation, ten water quality parameters that indicate physical, chemical and microbiological characteristics of water were selected. These parameters are also used in the WQI (Water Quality Index) methodology in determining the overall water quality. The results show that the water quality on the exit profile is better than the quality of the water at the entrance profile.

Original scientific paper UDC: 662.613.5:614.71/.72 DOI:10.2298/TSCI110114033D The monitoring and the control of air pollution which is a consequence of the activities of district heating plants in the area of Nis have indicated that there is a cause and effect relationship between the emitted pollutants and air quality on one hand, and health risk on the other hand. The aim of this paper is to determine the correlation between district heating plants, air quality and health risk. The evidence of this connection is the hazardous health quotient and the level of total carcinogenic risk in comparison to measured immission concentration and expected immission concentrations of pollutants from district heating plants in the city.

Riverine and torrential floods are the most significant natural hazards on the territory of Serbia. The potentially flooded area in Serbia with a 100-year return period is 15,198.07 km2 (17.2% of total area). Serbia is mostly threatened by the floods of small to medium-size torrential rivers mostly in late spring (from May to the end of June), a period characterised by intensive rainfalls of a few-hour duration. In the Pcinja River Basin, the town of Trgoviste was struck by a flood in May 2010. Two people were killed, almost 170 ha of land and 27 buildings were flooded (including 12 severely damaged), roads damaged or blocked, and 230 inhabitants evacuated. The flood in the Kolubara River Basin of late June 2010 affected 500 ha with 230 flooded households. Total damage was estimated at €370,000. In the watersheds studied, the 2010 floods were natural occurrences, but human action significantly aggravated the disasters. The messages to be learned help improve the system of prevention and the organisation of mitigation of flood damages, in order to reduce it to an acceptable level.