Integrating multi-scale data for the assessment of water availability and quality in the Kharaa - Orkhon - Selenga River system

The environmental and socioenonomic impacts of water pollution are particularly severe in regions with relatively limited water resources [WWAP, 2012]. Water quantity and quality are closely interlinked aspects which are relevant for surface water ecology, water use, and integrated management approaches.However, an intensive monitoring of both is usually prohibitive for very large areas, particularly if it includes the investigation of underlying processes and causes. For the Kharaa – Orkhon – Selenga Riversystem, this paper combines results from the micro (experimental plots, individual point data), meso (Kharaa River Basin) and macro (Selenge River Basin) scales. On the one hand, this integration allows aninterpretation of existing data on surface water quantity and quality in a wider context. On the other hand, it empirically underpins the complimentary character of intensive monitoring in selected model regions with more extensive monitoring in larger areas.