VTEI / Elbe

Elbe

Extreme multi-annual hydrological droughts in the Elbe river basin

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The aim of the study was the evaluation of multi-year hydrological droughts in the Elbe river basin for the Děčín stream gauging station (catchment area 51 104 m2). Average monthly flows from period 1851–2000 are available for the station. For this period, we also compiled a series of average monthly precipitation and temperatures from several data sources. We calculated annual values for precipitation, temperatures and differences in annual precipitation and runoff, then we computed long-term averages and regression linear trends for change over time. The trends are only slightly upward for all three variables, but long-term fluctuations in precipitation are more significant. According to the quantified multi-year average flows and precipitation, we searched for and merged cases from which one continuous drought lasting at least 5 years is generated for both precipitation and runoff. We quantified deficit volumes for individual drought periods. The long-term average flow was chosen as the threshold flow. The hydrological drought 2013–2020 had the longest duration, almost 7 years, of all droughts since 1851 and was also characterized by the largest total deficit volume. When compared to the average annual deficit volume, it is only in fourth place. When comparing the time series of monthly flows, it turned out that cases from different periods have similar patterns and behavior.

The influence of Prague on water quality in the Vltava and the Czech Elbe

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This paper deals with the development of water quality in the Elbe in the section between its confluence with the Vltava and the Hřensko border profile in 1980–2020, and with the influence of Prague on its pollution levels. After a significant improvement in 1985–2000, the quality of water discharged through the Hřensko profile today is at least at the level of the Federal Republic of Germany. Evaluation of substance transport shows that the Vltava contributes a larger share of pollution to the Elbe simply because it has higher flows. Prague contributes to pollution of the Vltava and the Elbe by discharging phosphorus.
As for other long-term indicators, it is an insignificant source.
In 2010–2020, there is a significant level of concentrations of pharmaceuticals, which come exclusively from the discharge of municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Many pharmaceuticals regularly occur in concentrations of tens to hundreds of [ng/l], and resistant pharma-ceuticals (gabapentin, metformin, oxipurinol, carbamazepine) are transported to Prague from the Vltava basin through the Orlík and Slapy reservoirs with a high theoretical retention time. The transport of resistant pharmaceuticals through relevant profiles corresponds mainly to the number of inhabitants in their river basins because they obviously pass through WWTP and do not degrade further in the river either.

A hundred years of the work of the Forestry Kingdom on the Upper Elbe as a commemoration in the celebration of the great anniversary of the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia

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For many it is the most beautiful dam in our country, with unique romantic elements on the crown. It is listed in the list of national cultural monuments of the Czech Republic under the somewhat special name of Vodní elektrárna – dam of the Kingdom of the Kingdom in Bílá Třemešná, although this is probably not a part of the hydropower plant itself.