Sustainable Management of International Waters - Prespa Lake

Sponsored by the NATO Programme for Security Through Science

The Lakes Prespa and Ohrid form a unique hydrological system where the water from the Prespa Lake, which is at 850 m asl., drains through the carbonate rocks of the Galichitza Mountain into Ohrid Lake, which is at 695 m asl. In 1995, Prespa Lake, which is shared between Greece, R. Macedonia and Albania, was designated as a Wetland of International Importance. Though there were some variations in the water level of the Prespa Lake in the past, in the recent years a steady drop in the water level has been recorded with the largest decrease of the water level in 1996, seven metres below the highest level recorded back in 1963. The research project will help to understand the reasons behind the decrease of the Prespa Lake water level.

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St. Naum – Ohrid, Macedonia (FYRO) Prespa Lake – Zaveri, Albania

The main tasks in the project include: (i) Continuous collection of data from weather stations in the Lake’s vicinity; (ii) Continuous monitoring of the major rivers’ water inflow into the Lake and water outflow; (iii) Use of the available data from tracer experiments with injection at the Prespa Lake and sampling in the St. Naum springs of the Ohrid Lake, in order to calibrate a numerical model, which will be used for analysis of the Lakes’ watershed hydrology; (iv) Planning for sustainable use of the Lake’s water.

Dr. Popov is the NATO Country Project Director.

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Mountain Galichica with the two lakes (Prespa on the left and Ohrid on the right)

The Wessex Institute of Technology is carrying out this project in association with:

  •     Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, R. Macedonia
  •     Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration, Greece
  •     Institute of for Nuclear Physics, Albania
  •     Hydrobiological Institute, R. Macedonia
  •     Institute for Hydrometeorology (IHM), Tirana, Albania