Abstract

The challenge of sustainable management of water resources is in the necessity to assess current and to predict future states of the resources under anthropogenic impact and to evaluate direct and indirect consequences of the impact on aquatic systems. The assessment of states of a water resource and measuring an anthropogenic impact on the resource is performed using environmental indicators that provide information about changes in environmental conditions. A sustainable approach to water resource management includes planning and adaptive management with mandatory monitoring and assessment based on selected indicators. Values of selected indicators can be determined from data obtained in observations and complemented by simulation. In both cases, observation data are necessary to conduct the analysis and to compare available management alternatives. The selection of environmental parameters for the evaluation of the indicators is an important step in sustainable management. This paper examines basic water quality parameters, their properties, usefulness and reliability with respect to the assessment process in sustainable water resource management