Lake Monitoring

The goal is to investigate the ecological status of Inlay Lake. It is the second largest lake in Myanmar and endangered due to a number of risks like erosion in the catchment area and discharge of waste water, which causes nutrient overloading, eutrophication, sedimentation and lake shallowing.  The extensive application of fertilizers and pesticides in the floating gardens at Inlay Lake additionally endangers the lake ecology.

The monitoring program developed will be based on the EU- Water Framework Directive and adapted to conditions in Myanmar. The program will be applied at Inlay Lake.  The aim is for the montoring program to be used as a model which can be applied to other standing water bodies in Myanmar for the assessment of ecological status and to enable possible abatement measures.

The main components of the monitoring program:

• chemical parameters (e.g. nitrogen and phosphorous compounds),
• biological parameters (e. g. phytoplankton and aquatic macrophyte composition and abundance)
• hydromorphological parameters (e.g. the expansion of floating gardens, sedimentation and lake shallowing and decrease of the free lake surface).

(Photos: Andreas Ballot, NIVA).

River Monitoring

The Bago River and its catchment are investigated as a pilot study where communities of benthic macroinvertebrate are investigated in relation to chemical and hydro-morphological pressures. The river rises in the southern part of the Pegu (Bago) Mountains, which seems to be a relatively pristine environment. Further downstream the river runs through the major cities - Bago and Yangon - before it drains into the Gulf of Martaban in the Andaman Sea. The Bago River catchment is exposed to ongoing deforestation and erosion due to intensive agriculture and the increasing human settlements.

Our aim is for the developed monitoring program to serve as a model system for monitoring and for the improvement of the ecological status also of other running water bodies in Myanmar. A monitoring program will be developed which is based on the EU- Water Framework Directive and adapted to conditions in Myanmar.  It will focus on:

• chemical parameters (e.g. nitrogen and phosphorous compounds),
• biological parameters (bottom dwelling macroinvertebrates in the rivers)
• hydromorphological parameters (e.g. deforestation of the riparian zone and physical alternations in relation to the river bank).