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22
Decision Support System
for Biebrza National Park
Ignacy Kardel
1
, Jaroslaw Chormanski
1
, Dorota Miroslaw-Swiatek
1
,
Tomasz Okruszko
1
, Mateusz Grygoruk
1,2
and Martin J. Wassen
3
1
Warsaw University of Life Sciences -SGGW,
Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Warszawa,
2
Biebrza National Park, Goniadz,
3
Utrecht University, Copernicus Institute, Environmental Sciences,
Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht
1,2
Poland
3
The Netherlands
1. Introduction
A Decision Support System (DSS) was developed in order to quantify environmental
changes that occurred during the last two centuries leading to degradation of the wetland
ecosystems of the Biebrza National Park. The main idea was bringing together scientific
knowledge and practical experience under one framework and subsequently creating and
facilitating communication between a network of scientists, nature managers and local
stakeholders. As a result, an analysis tool was created, which is used for the description of
relations between land use, management activities, surface- and groundwater status,
conservation and restoration measures and the current state of wetland ecosystems. The
system was built in 2001- 2004 in the framework of a PIN MATRA project by seven Dutch
and Polish institutions, then improved in the period 2007-2010 within the cooperation of six
Polish and Norwegian institutions with an EEA Grant. The previous stages of the DSS
development have been described in several ways (Chormanski & Wassen, 2005; Kardel et
al, 2009; Chormanski et al, 2009a).
2. Area
The Biebrza Wetlands are one of the last undisturbed lowland river systems in Europe. The
Biebrza River (N.E. Poland) and its riparian areas form a large, fairly pristine inland
freshwater wetland. It is a hotspot for biodiversity, which is highly valued for flora,
avifauna and mammals (beaver, wolf, otter, elk). Founded in 1992 the Biebrza National Park
(BNP) manages a 690 km
2
area, consisting of 160 thousand parcels (lots; half of them are
privately owned). BNP is the largest of the Polish National Parks with the following land
cover structure: 43% wetlands, 31% agricultural land (extensive grasslands and pastures)
and 26% forests. Several publications have been devoted to the BNP description, the latest
data can be found in Wassen et al. (2006).
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