Environmental profile of Wrocław

Wrocław is the chief city of Lower Silesia situated in the southwest part of Poland. It is one of the oldest and

most beautiful towns in Poland.

General profile of Wrocław

5 large rivers flow through Wrocław: the Odra River and its 4 tributaries.

There are 12 islands and 112 bridges in Wrocław.

General profile of Wrocław

There are few forests at the area of Wrocław. The biggest area is covered by national

forests – 1300 ha.Parks are the hallmarks of Wrocław’s urban

greenery. There are 45 parks in the city.

Forests

Commercial power sector, is the primary source of air pollution in Wrocław.

The largest pollutant emissions are seen for: dust (7878 Mg/year) sulphur dioxide (4118 Mg/year) nitrogen oxides (2456 Mg/year) carbon oxides (1 267 858 Mg/year)

AIR

Dust

Sulph

ur dio

xide

Nitroge

n oxid

es

Carbon

oxide

s0

50010001500200025003000350040004500

Mg/

year

AIR in Wrocław

Electomagnetic field can influence all organisms. Effects depend on intencity of the field.

The most popular artificial sources of electromagnetic fields in the environment include:

–broadcasting antennas of cellular telephony base stations

–base stations antennas of different systems for land mobile radiocommunications

–overhead lines 

Electromagnetic field

There are many sources of pollution in The Odra River area. Mainly matallurgy and heavy industry. There are about 1700 potential sources of pollution and about 700 significantly influence the condition of The Odra River and it’s tributaries.

WATER

Petrochemicals Petroleum refining Steel works foundries

THE MOST DANGEROUS POLLUTANTS

Surface water quality monitoring observations indicate a clear improvement in water quality in the water courses situated in Wrocław. This is due to the collapse of industry responsible for water contamination and due to reduction in the amount of sewage discharged from the sources of pollution that still exist. This is also stems from substantial investment efforts made to modernise the existing wastewater treatment plants and to erect new ones.

Quality of the water

PHOSPHORUS LEVELS IN ODRA RIVER

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

Mg/

l

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

0123456789

10

Mg/

lNITROGEN LEVELS IN ODRA RIVER

The results of observations show that water quality in the water courses in Wrocław has significantly improved over the last decade or so. Surface water in rivers in the city falls into the 3rd quality class (satisfactory), and in some cases into the 2nd class (good quality).

Improvement

Floods are very dangerous for the environment. The biggest flood in the history of the city took place in July 1997.

FLOODS

The results of the analyses made by the Wrocław Regional Chemical and Agricultural Station shows that the content of phosphorus, potassium and magnesium soils with very low content of the above macroelements represent beetwen 20% and 40% of all arable land. The content od heavy metals has decreased in last 5 years.

SOIL

Waste is one of the biggest environmental problems in Wrocław. It is coused by the very high waste production level and low recycling level.

WASTE

Waste type Amount of sewage

2010 2013 20201. Bio-waste 69,982 71,180 73,1592. paper 62,183 63,248 65,0063. plastic 42,678 43,409 44,6164. glass 24,118 24,531 25,2135. metal 13,893 14,131 14,5246. fabric 4667 4747 48797. wood 4613 4692 48238. Dangerous waste 2779 2826 2905

The amount of sewage Mg/lPresent and future

Recycling : paper, plastic and glass• Placing recycling bins at school• „How to turn rubbish into something

useful ?” –school competition Saving water Saving electricity Walking to school Cleaning the local environment (collecting

and recycling rubbish)

How can we help ?

Thank you for your attention