Water Quality – Trophic State

Freshwater, in sufficient quantity and quality, is essential for all aspects of life and fundamental to sustainable development. Yet water-related ecosystems are threatened by human activities. Eutrophication is a common threat: the excessive growth of algae resulting in oxygen depletion. It can be occasional or frequent. To monitor this process, one can use the trophic state index. It refers to the degree at which organic matter accumulates in the lake and may be used to infer its particular state, or quality. A five year baseline (2006- 2010), per lake, has been produced. The maps depicts mean deviations (low to extreme) of trophic state in recent years (2017-2019) compared to the individual lake baseline measurements.