oa Assessment of Groundwater Pollution Hazards within the Polish-Ukrainian Borderland

The thesis presents an example of assessment of anthropogenic pressure on groundwater within the cross-border Polish-Ukrainian area by taking into account the impact of diffuse and point sources of pollution. The study was conducted under “EU-WATERRES: European Integrated Management System for Transboundary Groundwater Resources and Anthropogenic Hazards” project funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the European Economic Area Grant Fund and the Norwegian Regional Cooperation Grant Fund. The main potential factors of pollution were identified, the intensity of their impact on the quality of groundwater was analyzed, and the total level of hazards was calculated. The research-based map of groundwater pollution hazards was constructed, which allows for spatial analysis of the distribution of areas with different hazard levels. It is natural that the highest classes of anthropogenic pressures are confined to areas with high population density, low level of centralized sewage systems, and numerous point sources of pollution. In general, on the Ukrainian side, there is a much higher level of overall anthropogenic pressure on the groundwater chemical status. Areas with high and very high levels of pollution in Ukraine account for 6.5% of the study area, while in Poland they make up only 0.55%.