Rivers are just like blood vessels of the earth, if so, what is the function of deltas?

• Main Author: NAGANAWA Hidetosh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: CITDD Publishing House 2013-12-01
• Series: Scientific Annals of the Danube Delta Institute
• Subjects: Danube Delta; limnology; freshwater resources; water scarcity; environmental conflict; lake management; world population; biodiversity; carrying capacity; sustainable development
• Online Access: http://www.ddni.ro/manager/editor/UserFiles/File/Scientific%20annals/volume/19/19.Final/art_08.pdf
• ISSN: 1842-614X; 2247-9902

On the Danube Delta as a stage, an international conference was held in September of 2012, and it has become a good opportunity to gather participants from domestic and foreign countries, building various intimacy in the riverside port city of Tulcea. From the fact that the transboundary river Danube flows into the Black Sea, their viewpoints of the participants were divided into river or sea environments and, of these are connected by the vast delta. Thus, the Danube Delta has characteristics of both rivers and lakes, in some areas further combines the nature of the sea, to be an attractive field. In other words, this means that we may not be able to cover the delta only by the existing traditional methods of limnology. Depletion of freshwater resources, or water scarcity such as the catalyst for regional environmental conflict are expected during this century, so we should try to make a comprehensive evaluation, taking account of lake management, transition of the economy vis-à-vis world population growth, maintenance of biodiversity, and also the earth’s carrying capacity and, sustainable development must be aware of essential. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first trial of an approach to the function study of deltas, from the viewpoint of not only water management and development but also population, resources and the environment.