THE IRON GATES RESERVOIR – ASPECTS CONCERNING HYDROLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND WATER

The paper makes a synthesis of the hydrological characteristics of the Iron Gates I reservoir and at the same time, it gives an account of its water quality state. A number of specific issues are revealed such as the feeding sources, level regime, water discharge, sediment load, and sedimentation processes. Likewise, the study highlights the alteration of the main hydrological parameters (levels, liquid and solid discharges) entailed by reservoir creation, by simply comparing the present day situation with that existing before the artificial lake came into being. The analysis of hydrological characteristics relies especially on the datasets provided by the “Romanian Waters” National Administration for the Bazia , Or ova and Drobeta Turnu Severin gauging stations, which have different recording intervals for the period 1921 – 2006. At the same time, bibliographic sources have been taken into account in order to better understand the hydrological phenomena. As far as water quality is concerned, this has been established based on the quality indicators for the periods 2000 – 2004 and 2006 – 2009, which exist in the records of the National Water Monitoring System.