A monitoring system for torrential regime rivers: First results of the action taken on basento river

The aquatic environmental protection from degradation dice to human activities must be based on a monitoring program that allows for water quality assessment as a function of basin pollution sources and river self-cleaning capacity. The objectives of the research are: firstly, to set, rip a basin scale water quality monitoring program, secondly, obtain a baseline water quality evaluation and thirdly, identify and analyse the relations between water quality and pollution discharges from the basin. The design of the technical monitoring program on a local scale requires the determining of the location of sampling stations, sampling procedure for water, control parameters and the selection of temporal frequencies. A preliminary campaign was carried out to validate the water sampling methodology by exploring the transversal and vertical changes of dissolved oxygen concentration in the river cross section. A dissolved oxygen profile along the river put the emphasis on the minimum oxygen values, representative of organic load pollution peaks, and on the river's capacity for recovering, A monthly monitoring program has been going on since April 1997, focusing on water quality assessment.