ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION BY PRESERVING THE REQUIRED QUALITY OF SURFACE WATER

The paper provides an assessment of the water quality of the Danube River at the measuring station of Novi Sad as a function of oxygen consumption indicators in surface waters (BOD₅ and NH₄–N). The aim is to achieve the principle of sustainable water management of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). For surface waters, the main goal of the WFD is to achieve "good status", i.e., class II of ecological status of water quality, which shows a low level of changes in the ambient state of the environment. The calculated values of environmental protection indicators (BOD₅ =2.6 mg/l and NH₄–N =0.08 mg/l) at the observed measuring station place the water quality of the Danube into the required class II of the ecological status. The ecosystem approach indicates that the concentrations of the observed parameters BOD₅ and NH₄–N correspond to the target values of the required water quality of the Danube as an integral part of the environment.