River and direct inputs of chemical substances continue to be very important factors related to many environmental problems in marine and coastal areas. This is the reason why the preparation of the Regional Overview on River and Direct Inputs of Contaminants into the Marine and Coastal Environment in the NOWPAP Region (hereinafter RDI RO) was one of the initial activities of POMRAC.
The first RDI RO has been published in 2006 (POMRAC Technical Report #4) and was based on the data of 2002-2004. The second RDI RO has been published in 2009 (POMRAC Technical Report # 7) and summarized the available data for 2005-2007. The necessity to update this information is obvious, especially taking into account the effects of global changes. This is a reason for the proposal to prepare a new regional assessment of trends in the river and direct Inputs of contaminants to the marine and coastal environment in the NOWPAP region during the last decade. This activity was suggested at the 14th POMRAC FPM and approved by 21 IGM in 2017.
This Regional Overview, based on the recently available data for 2007-2016 presented by the experts from the NOWPAP member states, summarizes the status and trends during the last decade of river water quality and data on the direct input of contaminants. NOWPAP publications, research papers, and overviews prepared by other international projects such as UNDP YSLME and PICES, are also used.
