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Zintegrowane gospodarowanie zasobami wodnymi – wybrane aspekty praktyczne na przykładzie Polski
Integrated Water Resources Management – selected practical aspects on the example of Poland. The purpose of the study is to present the main assumptions of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and to indicate the practical aspects of the implementation of the IWRM into the Polish legal system. Therefore, it will be discussed, among others, a new organizational structure for water management, taking into account the river basin system and a list of water management planning documents. The practical aim of the chapter is to identify and discuss the sources of spatial data in the field of water management used in water management planning and in spatial planning. The work used scientific literature, current legal acts and water management planning documents (as of December 31, 2023) as well as data provided by the PGW Wody Polskie. A query of spatial data regarding water resources management was carried out in the period December 1–31, 2023. The analyses carried out confirmed, e.g., that the takeover of the competences of the provincial land improvement and water facilities boards by PGW Wody Polskie on January 1, 2018 constitutes the implementation of the provisions of the Water Framework Directive of October 23, 2,000 regarding the management of water resources within hydrographic, and not administrative, units, and that numerous changes introduced in the Water Law Act of July 20, 2017 contribute to delays in the development of water management planning documents in Poland.
Retencja rozproszona jako element dywersyfikacji w łagodzeniu rosnącego deficytu wody w rolnictwie
Problems of Local Flooding in Functional Urban Areas in Poland
The research process of developing recommendations for rural communities directly adjacent to metropolitan cities in the field of local flooding protection, especially retention fee was preceded by: analysis of secondary data in 100 communities in three Functional Urban Areas (Metropolitan Areas, MA) in Poland: Poznań MA, Wrocław MA and Łódź MA (assessment of flooding and urbanization), analysis of primary data in 18 rural communities immediately adjacent to the metropolitan centers: semi-structured telephone interviews (stormwater fee from the stakeholder perspective) and survey research (local floodings from the citizen perspectives). To illustrate the scale of the flooding problem in MAs, flood risk maps were used along with data from the State Fire Service on local threats, and for assessing the scale of suburbanization data obtained from Statistics Poland. Although residents confirmed their readiness to co-finance the activities supporting the development of water retention, local authorities were hesitant to introduce additional charges for the residents. Therefore, a better solution would be to set the fees already at the national level. However, communities should be given more power with regards to the distribution of collected funds which, in turn, should be allocated directly to the local programs for the enhancement of retention capacity in the local catchments.
Rainwater harvesting on animal farms as a response to the increasing water deficit in agriculture
In the context of growing water scarity in agriculture the harvesting of rainwater from livestock buildings could be seen as a new opportunity. Based on the National Agricultural Census (2020), rainfall data (1991-2020) and the opportunity and investment costs related to the installation purchase, a prognostic analysis was conducted. The analysis revealed the immense potential of farms for rainwater collection. In Poland there are 201,980 cowsheds, 65,088 pigsties and 96,435 poultry houses, representing a total area of 8,820 ha, which allows additionally to retain over 41 million m3 of water per year. This amount will cover only 15% of the livestock total water demand. It should be noted that the average economic efficiency (EF) value for the entire country was 81.6%, and the differences in the analyzed animal groups reached a moderate level (CV=14.7%±0.1 depending on the groups). The unit price of tap water was the main determinant of the highest EF of investment in rainwater harvesting (RWH) in particular voivodeships.