Environmental profile of Wrocław
Wrocław is the chief city of Lower Silesia situated in the southwest part of Poland. It is one of the oldest and
most beautiful towns in Poland.
General profile of Wrocław
5 large rivers flow through Wrocław: the Odra River and its 4 tributaries.
There are 12 islands and 112 bridges in Wrocław.
General profile of Wrocław
There are few forests at the area of Wrocław. The biggest area is covered by national
forests – 1300 ha.Parks are the hallmarks of Wrocław’s urban
greenery. There are 45 parks in the city.
Forests
Commercial power sector, is the primary source of air pollution in Wrocław.
The largest pollutant emissions are seen for: dust (7878 Mg/year) sulphur dioxide (4118 Mg/year) nitrogen oxides (2456 Mg/year) carbon oxides (1 267 858 Mg/year)
AIR
Dust
Sulph
ur dio
xide
Nitroge
n oxid
es
Carbon
oxide
s0
50010001500200025003000350040004500
Mg/
year
AIR in Wrocław
Electomagnetic field can influence all organisms. Effects depend on intencity of the field.
The most popular artificial sources of electromagnetic fields in the environment include:
–broadcasting antennas of cellular telephony base stations
–base stations antennas of different systems for land mobile radiocommunications
–overhead lines
Electromagnetic field
There are many sources of pollution in The Odra River area. Mainly matallurgy and heavy industry. There are about 1700 potential sources of pollution and about 700 significantly influence the condition of The Odra River and it’s tributaries.
WATER
Petrochemicals Petroleum refining Steel works foundries
THE MOST DANGEROUS POLLUTANTS
Surface water quality monitoring observations indicate a clear improvement in water quality in the water courses situated in Wrocław. This is due to the collapse of industry responsible for water contamination and due to reduction in the amount of sewage discharged from the sources of pollution that still exist. This is also stems from substantial investment efforts made to modernise the existing wastewater treatment plants and to erect new ones.
Quality of the water
PHOSPHORUS LEVELS IN ODRA RIVER
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
Mg/
l
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
0123456789
10
Mg/
lNITROGEN LEVELS IN ODRA RIVER
The results of observations show that water quality in the water courses in Wrocław has significantly improved over the last decade or so. Surface water in rivers in the city falls into the 3rd quality class (satisfactory), and in some cases into the 2nd class (good quality).
Improvement
Floods are very dangerous for the environment. The biggest flood in the history of the city took place in July 1997.
FLOODS
The results of the analyses made by the Wrocław Regional Chemical and Agricultural Station shows that the content of phosphorus, potassium and magnesium soils with very low content of the above macroelements represent beetwen 20% and 40% of all arable land. The content od heavy metals has decreased in last 5 years.
SOIL
Waste is one of the biggest environmental problems in Wrocław. It is coused by the very high waste production level and low recycling level.
WASTE
Waste type Amount of sewage
2010 2013 20201. Bio-waste 69,982 71,180 73,1592. paper 62,183 63,248 65,0063. plastic 42,678 43,409 44,6164. glass 24,118 24,531 25,2135. metal 13,893 14,131 14,5246. fabric 4667 4747 48797. wood 4613 4692 48238. Dangerous waste 2779 2826 2905
The amount of sewage Mg/lPresent and future
Recycling : paper, plastic and glass• Placing recycling bins at school• „How to turn rubbish into something
useful ?” –school competition Saving water Saving electricity Walking to school Cleaning the local environment (collecting
and recycling rubbish)
How can we help ?
Thank you for your attention