Babina
BABINA
Introduction
During the last decades of the 20th century, the Danube Delta has suffered from human interventions that led to dramatic changes in some areas. These interventions consisted in the dyking of large areas for the purpose of agricultural use, intensive fish-farming and forestry, which resulted in dramatic alterations or disturbances of the water balance. This had effects on the alteration of natural processes, the ecological balance as well as the characteristic functions of wetlands and led to a deterioration, or worse the loss of area-specific habitats. When the transformation measures were stopped in early 1990, the dyked area covered 97.408 ha (22 %) of the total 482.592 ha. Studies for rehabilitation/restoration measures were started in the Danube Delta immediately following its declaration as Biosphere Reserve in 1990.
The objective of ecological reconstruction/restoration is to restore the natural, site-specific hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological functions, to ensure the redevelopment of the ecosystem and its functions and thus to promote the development of site-specific habitats and their biodiversity. Moreover, the redevelopment of the natural resources should enable the local populations to proceed to their sustainable, traditional use. Given that the ecosystems of the Danube Delta depend on the dynamics of the Danube River, the re-establishment of the hydrological regime reveals to be the most important factor to be considered in restoration. In the case of dyked and drained polders that are no longer useful for agricultural purposes, the reconnection to the flood regime of the Danube is the measure to be taken and the prerequisite for a successful restoration. Such measures do not restore the original conditions of the time before the dyking, given that this would require a complete removal of the dams, which again reveals impossible in view of extremely high costs so, the opening of the dams in specific hydrological and ecologically effective spots and the reconnection to the river dynamics could restore a better performance of the ecosystem.
After the political reversal in Romania, Babina island was the first project in the Danube Delta where new paths were stroke, away from an intensive, site-unspecific use back to near-natural structures. So, In spring 1994 polder Babina situated in the north-eastern part of the Danube Delta and formerly destined for agricultural purposes, was reconnected to the flood regime of the Danube River. A monitoring programme was elaborated and implemented so as to find answers to all major issues regarding restoration, to document the development subsequent to the re-flooding and to verify the success of the measures taken. This allowed to show development trends, evaluate the measures and, if required, to propose further corrective supplementary measures. First results as for the restoration of hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological functions have been published in 1997 in a comprehensive report elaborated in co-operation with the Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development in Tulcea, Romania, and WWF Germany’s Institute for Floodplain Ecology, Rastatt (recently integrated as chair in the Institute for Water and River Basin Management, University of Karlsruhe).
The monitoring conducted over 10 years accounts for a relatively rapid development of the area, the hydrological regime with its fluctuating floods and dry periods representing the key factor for restoration. Flood conditions do, however, differ from the natural flood situation. Before the construction of the dams, i.e. under natural conditions, it occurred with a large-scale overflooding of the island. In the case of the dyked Babina island it merely occurs in the area of the dam openings. Despite of these constraints the efficiency of the ecosystem has been reestablished by an opening of the dams in specific hydraulically and ecologically effective spots and the reconnection to the river dynamics. This ensured a redevelopment of the site-specific biodiversity and the resources. It caused a change of mind and offered new incentives to restore further flood areas that had been altered by man, in the Danube Delta but also beyond.
