Stosowanie informacji przestrzennej dla wyznaczenia znaczących oddziaływań antropogenicznych i ich skutków na wody rzek Polski

The paper discusses the use of GIS tools and spatial information for defining significant anthropogenic impact and its effect on the waters of Polish rivers. In the EU the basic legal act regulating the issues of protecting water resources and ecosystems dependent on water resources is the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/WE (WFD). According to the requirements of the above Directive, EU member countries will have to achieve good status of surface waters by the end of 2015. Evaluating the effects of anthropogenic pressure on water environment is the first step conditioning future remedial actions. The identification of significant impacts was carried out with the use of GIS technology, which was in accordance with the guidelines for implementing RDW in EU member countries. The paper presents recommendations of the Water Framework Directive as regards the analysis of anthropogenic pressure. In order to carry out this analysis geospatial information was necessary. Some of the data were prepared within the framework of previous stages of RDW implementation, while the remaining data were obtained especially for the purposes of the above mentioned analysis. The paper presents this data as well as the methodology adopted for identifying significant anthropogenic impacts. The basic spatial unit for which the analysis was carried out was so called .aggregated part of surface waters. (SCWP). This term stands for the area that encompasses several adjoining sub-basin areas of similar character, identified for the purposes of water management planning. Also, examples of results of GIS analyses are provided, performed with the use of data from Regional Data Bank that was created and is managed by the Central Statistical Office (GUS). Additionally, the paper describes indicators used for the assessment of morphological changes as well as methods to calculate selected examples of indicators. The result of spatial analyses is final assessment of possible obstacles to achieving good status of waters by the end of 2015, prepared on the basis of information on hydrology and morphology of watercourses as well as on causative factors.