Project: Integrated system supporting management and protection of water dam reservoir (Polish acronym: ZiZOZap) is an interdisciplinary project which brings together over one hundred scientists representing the University of Silesia (project leader), Cracow University of Technology, Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas in Katowice, and Institute of Environmental Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Zabrze. The project is centred around Goczałkowice Reservoir, which is among the largest water dam reservoirs in Poland. The reservoir has a number of important functions. Not only is it a source of drinking water for the Silesian metropolitan area, but it is also a retention tank, and as such acts as protects against floods and droughts. Equally important are nature protects, fisheries policy, and tourism.
Objective: Scientists are developing an information system based on monitoring, integrated model and detailed models, as well as water management scenarios, which will enable both regular qualitative and functional analysis of the retention tank and prognosticating short-term and long-term changes. Goczałkowice Reservoir was selected as a model retention tank. In their work towards developing an integrated management system for the reservoir, the scientists are taking into account all aspects of its functioning, so that best solutions can then be used with respect to other dam reservoirs. Within the project scientists elaborate methods of collecting and visualizing data which enable modelling of processes taking place in the reservoir and its vicinity. Alongside scenarios facilitating reservoir management, equally important is how the reservoir is protected. Hence, the project team are identifying problems that stem from decreasing functional potential, including ecological potential, of the tank due to its aging and spatial planning of the reception basin. The reservoir models system will also make it possible to forecast quantitative and qualitative changes in water resources influencing water treatment processes and to predict water fertility and other changes in the reservoir and surrounding ecosystems.
Cooperation. The project’s strategic partners are as follows: Górnośląskie Przedsiębiorstwo Wodociągów SA and the Regional Water Management Board in Gliwice. Under partnership in implementation of innovations in environmental management, the University of Silesia signed in 2013 cooperation agreements with local government units located in the vicinity of Goczałkowice Reservoir.