EVALUATION OF LAND COVER, LAND USE AND WATER QUALITY IN THE REGIONS WITH VARIOUS ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITY – A CASY STUDY OF OSAM RIVER BASIN, BULGARIA

Nowadays the world´s demand for natural resources is more pressing than ever before. The good quality of the water and it’s enough quantity, the provision of energy sources and food is a very important and difficult issue. This challenge could be done by ensuring a better management of the mentioned resources. Strengthening synergies and reducing trade-offs among the sectors is possible by applying a Nexus approach. This article aims to assets the land cover, land use and water quality in the upper and middle catchment of the Osam River (municipalities of Troyan and Lovech) for the period 2012-2019. Land use and land cover is a key factor in relation to water quality characteristics. The emphasis is on acquiring new knowledge through spatio-temporal analysis of the problem. To assess the river water quality this study considers the following parameters: pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), electric conductivity (EC), ammonia (N-NH4), nitrates (N-NO3), nitrites (N-NO2), phosphates (P-ortho-PO4), biological oxygen demand (BOD5). To identify the land use/cover in the region was based on GIS, digital topographic and thematic maps, Corine Land Cover data, high-resolution satellite imagery (Google Earth), digital elevation model, statistics and field studies. The obtained results are a good basis for popularizing the Nexus paradigm at different scales (i.e., local, regional, national, European and beyond) including planning and elaboration of the necessary policies for sustainable management of both land use and river waters in terms of their quality.