ABSTRACT
(Received October 5, 1987; in final form November 10, 1987)
The Krka River estuary (Yugoslav Eastern Adriatic region near the town of Sibenik) with its Prokljan basin, and copper as water contaminant) is used to model a management strategy based on the environmental (assimilative, absorptive, receiving) capacity. This estuarine region is faced with conflicting land and sea use activities, such as mariculture for salmonids, and mooring of pleasure boats and yachting. All these activities in the Prokljan region are additional to industrial effluents originating from the industrial town of Knin, and in the particular case of copper, land-based run-off from vineyards. The present level of total contaminant load is still not excessive, but the potential of the estuarine basin for mariculture requires anticipatory restrictions which depend on the extent and nature of activities to be accommodated.
The calculation of environmental capacity and the ensuing conclusions are based on the available information on hydrology, physical, chemical and sedimentological processes, and the establishment of a mass balance model. The biogeochemical fate of pollutants is considered in terms of restrictions imposed. In this paper the approach is exemplified for a single pollutant, copper, which, under prevailing conditions, appears to be the most critical in endangering mariculture activities. Restrictions should be imposed on new activities such as the use of copper-based antifouling paints on boats and yachts entering and mooring in the Prokljan basin.
Use of the environmental capacity principle for advising regulation of activities, in this case the creation and expansion of a mooring facility (marina), is discussed. The conclusion is reached that a limit must be imposed on the number of boats present at the same time in the area, and that this number is significantly less than that represented by simple physical accommodation capacity for boats.
