The European Water Framework Directive can have enormous consequences for agricul-ture in the Netherlands. In parts of the country agriculture should be taken out of production because the nutrient loads to the surface water system are far too high. This doom scenario is of course unde-sired and a number of source-specific and effect-specific measures are necessary. The fate of nutri-ents in the soil is strongly interrelated with its hydrology. Directly, because nutrients are transported by water and the distribution of the residence time of drainage water is a good measure for the time behaviour of the nutrient loads to the surface water system. Longer residence time in the soil means more of nutrients applied by farmers but also a longer recovery period, after applying source-specific measures. In this paper three promising effect-specific hydrological measures are described buffer strips, retention strips, and controlled drainage.
In summer 1998 detailed measurements of ablation were carried out on the Waldemar Glacier in order to determine its spatial and time variation. Five-days' average ablation was equal to 14.7 cm water equivalent (w.e.), with maximum total ablation of 160-180 cm w.e. at 200 m a.s.l., and the lowest ablation of 106 cm w.e. at 350 m a.s.l. Total ablation for the whole glacier was estimated at 120.5 cm w.e. Simplified scheme of changes of summer ablation with altitude was exampled by this glacier. Relation between discharge from individual fragments of the Waldemar Glacier and their ablation was examined. Discharge of the Waldemar River was analysed: from about 4,800,000 m3 of water in the stream, 67% came from surface ablation of the Waldemar Glacier.
In order to help develop a better understanding of relevant catchment processes, this paper presents the changes in physico-chemical features of the Wieprz River water during the spring snowmelt flood of 2006. The obtained results showed that the groundwater sampled from the springs and the water sampled from the river had a similar and quite stable composition of the basic physicochemical features in the period of solely groundwater feeding (the river is fed only with the water coming from underground sources). The physico-chemical composition of river water during snowmelt depended on the contribution of surface runoff in total outflow and the flood phase. The correlation coefficients between the discharge in the Wieprz River and the concentrations in the studied indices were significantly negative: pH, SEC, HCO3, Ca, Mg, Na, Sr, SiO2, Cl, SO4, F. Significantly positive correlations associated with an increase in discharge were observed in the case of: K, NO3, NO2, total organic carbon, chemical oxygen demand and biochemical oxygen demand. Step and bidirectional responses were noted during the snowmelt flood in the case of the content of NH4 and PO4.