Assessment of quality of the heavily modified waters of the Port of Las Palmas.

Abstract

The assessment of chemical and ecological quality of the heavily modified waters of the Port of Las Palmas is performed for a period of one year. This types of water need a methodological and technical support for the integrated management of water systems port at which combines management spatial of heavily modified surface water bodies, with monitoring and assessment of ecological quality and chemical status. This feature requires that in many cases the identification of subunits establishing management more efficient evaluation to recognize its different types of environmental hazards. The selection of indicators intended for the assessment of the chemical quality of water and the seabeds are took of the list of the Royal Decree 60/2011 on environmental quality standards on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy for those substances that may be present in the activities or pressures existing in the port or adjacent areas. Chemical quality parameters of the water masses were divided into several groups: heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other organic compounds to each of the different water bodies. Assessment of the chemical quality in the water column is performed over the sampling cycle in response to the environmental quality standards established for the various indicators. The assessment of the ecological quality is performed with a biological and physico-chemical indicators set representative of the main pollution processes in port environments, which define its ecological potential. Biological quality is performed with phytoplankton, chlorophylla. The indicators used in the assessment of physico-chemical sediment quality include total organic carbon, total Kjeldahl nitrogen and total phosphorus. The environmental quality of heavily modified waters is evaluated from the hierarchical integration of the previous quality elements.