Maintaining the imperative in balanced development principle requires utilizing water resources in a way that will satisfy the needs of future generations and preserve the environment. The degree of groundwater resource exploitation is supervised by means of a water management balance, where groundwater intake is compared with the resources available for utilization.
This publication, the first of three, considers the issues related to the Vistula River basin, including Żuławy Wiślane and the catchment areas of the Przymorze Wschodnie rivers - the Reda, Łeba, Łupawa and Słupia, as well as the Pasłęka - the catchment area of the Vistula Lagoon. It presents a synthesis of the assessment of groundwater resources available for utilization and a water management balance.
The balance includes an assessment of disposable resources assuming an average value for the perennial renewal of groundwater, as well as guaranteed resources determined for a period of drought years that are representative of the balancing aquifer system.
To determine the guaranteed resources required for the balance requires identifying the groundwater resource reserves available for utilization and for assessing the impact of groundwater intake and how it is used on river flows across a profile of the balancing catchment area. In the analysed balancing areas of the Vistula River basin, the groundwater resource reserves available for utilization under current groundwater intake conditions are predominantly substantial and amount to 80-90% of the disposable resources (or prospective resources, depending on the degree of their documentation) and 70-90% of the guaranteed resources. With the exception of the balancing areas in the Little Vistula water region - one of which (Little Vistula GL-II) is in danger of becoming resource deficit, and another (Przemsza GL-III) which is exhibiting a deficit - the disposable and guaranteed resources reserve of the balancing areas designated in the Vistula river basin are in excess of 50% of the resources ascertained there.
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