24. In addition to meeting national needs, Georgia’s environmental monitoring should assist the Government to meet its international commitments, especially to the regional Black Sea Environment Program (BSEP). An urgent need to monitor the quality of near-shore (beach) and off-shore waters, rivers and estuaries, as well as ports and sources of pollution was identified in a regional study commissioned by EU TACIS in 1994. Untreated sewage, municipal waste, pollution from dilapidated oil facilities, ship waste, industrial pollution and agricultural runoff represent a known but insufficiently measured threat to both public health and coastal ecosystems, with negative impacts to tourism development.
25. The CEQMIS component would address the need for improved coastal monitoring and information management by supporting preparation of a Monitoring and Information System Feasibility and Design Study and laying the groundwork for its implementation. This would be done through procurement of sampling, measurement, and analytic equipment for selected monitoring laboratories, improvement of monitoring standards and data protocols, provision of training and technical assistance, and establishing a basic structure for an effective information system. Monitoring activities would focus on water quality monitoring, both near-shore and off-shore. Near-shore monitoring would result in setting up a comprehensive beach bathing water quality monitoring program (Blue Flag Program) to address public health and safety concerns related to beach use and support the use of beaches for tourism. Off-shore monitoring would include chemical, physical and biological parameters as well as monitoring of biological diversity. Pollution monitoring would include monitoring of physical, chemical and biological determinants in coastal rivers and estuaries.
26. The Coastal Environmental Quality Monitoring and Information System will include the following activities:
28. Blue Flag Program. The Blue Flag Program would concentrate on monitoring of beach water quality and disseminating the water quality data and information on water safety to municipal and health officials as well as the general public. The establishment of this program would implement some of the recommendations of the Regional Black Sea Environment Program. The Program would build on the existing capacity of the Sanitary and Hygiene (Sanitary) laboratories in Batumi, Poti, Kobuleti, as well as the State Department for Sanitary Control and Hygiene Regulation and Sanitary and Hygiene Research Institute in Tbilisi. These labs are already responsible for monitoring beaches for public health purposes, and for alerting the public to potential problems.
29. In support of the Blue Flag Program, the project would expand the monitoring points along the beaches, upgrade the monitoring and laboratory equipment and provide transportation means for the field work. It would also provide new information technology and training to lab staff. Finally, it would support a public information and education campaign to raise public awareness of relevant environmental and health issues. Training in laboratory methods and monitoring techniques would be provided in close cooperation with the Regional BSEP (funded by EU TACIS) program. The Program would use standardized sampling methods, sampling frequency, lab equipment, analytical methods, and data processing in accordance with international guidelines set in the World Health Organization 1995 Manual for Recreational Water and Beach Quality Monitoring and Assessment. Parameters to be monitored are described in Annex E.
30. Off-Shore Monitoring. Off-shore water quality monitoring would build on a tradition of off-shore scientific measurements that ceased in the late 1980’s due to unfavorable economic conditions. Similar to the Blue Flag Program, the off-shore monitoring would help meet Georgia’s international obligations under the Regional Black Sea Environmental Program. The off-shore monitoring would be coordinated from the BSEP Activity Center for Marine Biodiversity established at the Institute of Marine Ecology and Fisheries in Batumi. The project would provide the necessary monitoring laboratory and information technology, training resources, and funds necessary for renting or leasing a sea-going research vessel. The project would also provide assistance in coordinating the monitoring activities with other ongoing activities of the BSEP. The monitoring methods such as the routing, frequency, and determinants will be done in cooperation with the BSEP Activity Center for Marine Monitoring in Odessa, Ukraine as part of a Regional effort to develop a larger monitoring network.
31. Pollution Monitoring. The project would provide most needed equipment, laboratory consumables and training to selected Pollution Control of the MoE in Batumi and Poti to strengthen their capacity to monitor pollution of water courses in the coastal area. Limited support would be provided also to the Convention Inspection Laboratories for the Protection of Black Sea (Marine Inspections) in Poti and Batumi to increase their capacity to monitor pollution in and around ports. Pollution monitoring would complement near-shore and off-shore water quality monitoring programs and effluent monitoring for permitting. Selected pollution laboratories would be also equipped with information technology allowing them to share pollution data with other institutions connected by the environmental quality information system.
32. ICZM Information System. Monitoring data and information from laboratories and participating organizations would be fed into a computerized information system. The project would provide the ICZM WG, as well as other selected institutions, with computer technology necessary to access the information system and to provide input to its database. The information system would allow broad access to real-time environmental data on water quality and other environmental information. The information system would be integrated with a mainstream modular geographic information system (GIS) allowing for spatial and temporal linking of water quality monitoring data with land use and socioeconomic information.
33. Project activities would support the design of the information system,
provision of essential hardware, software, remote sensing data, and training
(both in-country and abroad). It would also help develop pilot applications
for monitoring data analysis and visualization, management of the coastal
protected areas, and other land-use planning applications. The GIS related
activities would be coordinated with similar activities funded by the EU
TACIS program and implemented through the BSEP. A concrete output of the
ICZM information collected and compiled under the project would be an updated
Report on the State of the Coastal Zone Environment in Georgia.