The quality of Albanian natural waters and the human impact

First record of the Asian diaptomid Neodiaptomus schmackeri (Poppe & Richard, 1892) (Crustacea: Copepoda: Calanoida) in Europe

“…Despite the old pasture traditions, after the 1950s the land use in the Dumre area changed toward agriculture. The landscape has been then progressively deforested and transformed to cropland (Cullaj et al, 2005); at the same time an extensive use of pesticides and herbicides became to compromise the water quality of most of the lakes (Parise et al, 2008). Furthermore the water from the lakes was exploited for irrigation without any restriction causing damaging effects on the biota (Qiriazi and Sala, 2000).…”

“…The landscape is characterized by several exokarstic landforms (rocks are carbonates and evaporites of Permian-Triassic origin) represented mainly by dolines, and most of them are flooded with rainwater (the average annual rainfall is around 1060 mm in the (Parise et al, 2008). As a consequence, the Dumre plateau hosts about a hundred karst lakes (Cullaj et al, 2005;Parise et al, 2008) most of which are small, generally less than 10 ha in surface-area and less than 20 meters deep. Despite the old pasture traditions, after the 1950s the land use in the Dumre area changed toward agriculture.…”

Analysis of organic pollutants in water samples of White Drin, Black Drin and Fierza Reservoir

“…The artificial Lake Fierza created by the dam at Fierzë is the largest artificial lake in Albania with its surface of 73 km². The second largest artificial lake, Koman, is also built on this river [1]. Organic pollutants, in particularly hydrocarbons and chlorinated pollutants, such as; BTEX, PAH, organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, Dioxins, etc, have been reported in many ecosystems.…”

Building multi-country collaboration on watershed management: lessons on linking environment and public health from the Western Balkans

“…The importance of the health and vitality of the Drini and Drina river watersheds cannot be overstated. The rivers offer economic development opportunities (20)(21)(22), energy (21)(22)(23)(24)(25), strong tourism draws (20,26,27), drinking water (28,29), agriculture and forestry (21,30,31), cultural heritage (26) Unauthenticated Download Date | 5/10/18 6:20 PM and transportation (31). However, several overarching pollution and management problems that endanger critical water resources in the region pose problems for long-term resilience and preparedness in the area.…”