C O N T E N T S - Physical Land Resources - Vrije Universiteit Brussel

occurring along large parts of the river stretch elaborate the importance of this nationalpark. The value of the wetlands is threatened due to changing water management andagricultural practices. Pastures in the floodplain, for a long time quasi stable ecosystemsbecause of traditional management practices show now degradation processes as thepeat lands are not accessible by modern agricultural machinery. On the other sideeutrophication is increasing due to agricultural and other human induced activitiesoutside of the river plain.Since several years a team of scientists from the University of Antwerp, the University ofGhent, the Agricultural University of Warsaw (SGGW) and the Vrije Universiteit Brusselperform joint field campaigns to collect data sets of the Biebrza River, which includesdischarge measurements at different locations, topographic measurements of thefloodplain by differential GPS, examination of plant and macro- invertebrate communitiesin the river and on the flood plains as well as several ground and surface water qualityparameters. The VUB team, Okke Batelaan, Jef Dams and Christian Anibas, stayed inPoland from 18 till 23 June 2007 to take part in this campaign. The main task was toinstall a network of piezometer nests along the Upper catchment of the Biebrza Riverbetween Rogozyn Stary and Rogozynek. In these piezometers pressure heads andtemperatures of the surface and groundwater are continuously measured withdataloggers. Dataloggers have been installed also in wells and the floodplain to providesimilar information adjacent to the river. The piezometers are also used for examining thehydraulic conductivity by performing slug tests. The so-called ‘temperature stick’ wasused to measure temperature profiles of the river bottom along the river in between thepiezometer locations. Both the information of the dataloggers and the T-stick can beused to derive a transient longitudinal vertical groundwater flux along the examinedsection. Christian Anibas stayed in Poland between 09 September and 11 December 2007on behalf of a grant of the Flemish authorities. Host was the Agricultural University ofWarsaw, sub-department of Hydrology and Water resources, where he, under promotionof Dr. Jaroslaw Chormanski, worked on heat transport modeling of the Upper Biebrzacatchment. Management of the piezometers and dataloggers placed in the Biebrza Riverearlier that year was performed as well as five measurement campaigns betweenSeptember and December to support the heat transport modeling.C. Anibas and O. BatelaanGroundwater Modelling SupportGroundwater modeling often needs specialized knowledge and experience. TheDepartment of Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering has a long tradition in teaching,- 58 -