Basic pollution sources (Task 4.1)

The main activity within this task was to review the existing information to be used to assess the main sources of pollution along the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts.

This task also estimated the hazards and threats to the coastal zone linked to Global Change factors such as erosion and rise in sea-levels.

 Background and Rationale

As a major centre of human civilization for many centuries, the region is littered with both point and diffused pollution sources from urban and industrial development, leading to increased amounts of waste from 17 countries in the rivers and the waters of the Black Sea . The great rivers Danube , Dnieper , Dniester , and the Don accommodate point sources of pesticides and fertilizers from much of Europe , and these in turn contaminate the coastal environment. The Black Sea was also a focus of great concern as a result of radioactive pollution arising from the Chernobyl accident; in the following years the Dardanelles became a point source of radioactive pollution for the Eastern Mediterranean . Though many projects have addressed the problem of eutrophication as one of the key issues for the Black Sea ecosystem, there is still not enough research being carried out on pollution in both areas (e.g. organic type of pollution like PAHs, PCBs etc.). In addition, the data that do exist are scattered throughout different publications and reports, most of which are not easily accessible.