Das Projekt "Sava River Basin: Sustainable Use, Management and Protection of Resources (SARIB)" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Kommission der Europäischen Gemeinschaften Brüssel. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Department für Agrarbiotechnologie, IFA-Tulln, Institut für Umweltbiotechnologie.The Sava River (945 km) is the biggest tributary to the Danube River. The 95551 km2 large catchment is extended over Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro. In the development of the river basin management plan all countries are already collaborating under the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) guidance. Although the methodological bases for data collection have been reasonably unified, data on the ecological character of the river basin, inventory of pollution sources, dangerous substances, socio-economic parameters, cost and benefit implications are still lacking due to insufficient financing and recent warfare. In the SARIB project specific tools based on combination of chemical analysis and biological effect methods will be developed and validated for the estimation of the pollution of sediments and impact on water biota. Geographical distribution of pollution will be identified and historical trends defined. Integrated prediction model about the behaviour of hazardous chemical substances will be combined with the socio-economic prediction model to serve as a base for the elaboration of scenario, remediation measures and best practice techniques. For that purpose an expert data and information management system will be developed.