Management of bathing water quality in Slovenia

摘要

The Slovene sea is a part of the Gulf of Trieste in the Adriatic Sea, which is a shallow marine basin. The basic problem on the Slovenian coast is its limited space, since the coastline is so short – only 46.6 km long. There are many different uses and also interests in the coastal zone. Population growth in the narrow coastal strip and increased urbanization additionally affected the coastal ecosystems. Thus, water quality that primarily depends on natural characteristics of the gulf has been even further deteriorated due to human impact. The main point sources of pollution are discharges of municipal wastewaters and from industry; an issues are also transboundary pollution, transport and non-point sources via surface run-off discharges. Long-term sea quality monitoring programs include bathing and transitional water and also waters for living and growing of marine mussels. Slovenia with 21 coastal bathing waters has high density of bathing waters per coastline among European Union countries, followed by Malta, France, Italy and Belgium. Water quality data, which will be partly represented in the article, is used to characterize waters, identify trends over time, to identify emerging problems and to support decision making with regard to protect public health and also marine environment.