In recent years, the basin has faced increasing challenges driven by climate change, human activities, and natural factors, resulting in watershed instability, affecting the basin’s water quality, quantity, dynamic, biodiversity, and the livelihoods of local communities.
On the other hand, Montenegro lacks data and monitoring programs, halting systematic planning and implementation of the important water and associated resources.
The project Water Balance aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the hydrological water balance in the Skadar Lake Watershed over the past 5-10 years.
By implementing a detailed water balance model, the project will assess hydrological dynamics across different sub-catchments within the basin. This approach will help identify critical areas where watershed instability is most pronounced.
Biomonitoring programme will be applied and expanded for migratory and water flow dependent species in order to provide for complementary and long-term overview of the changes and their ecosystem impact, as well as to involve larger multi-stakeholder groups and citizens.
Based on the findings, the project will develop and recommend actionable strategies to mitigate these issues, promoting sustainable watershed management, ecological conservation and largely missing bio-monitoring. It will thus provide for a tool to be used in historical and future analyses.
This 2 years project is led by EnvPro and supported through US Forest Service.
