Environmental Management Plan of “Oroklini Lake and Wetland” (Natura 2000 Network). Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, Cyprus.

Environmental Management Plan of “Oroklini Lake and Wetland” (Natura 2000 Network)

Oroklini Lake is in the Larnaka district of Cyprus and is located about 10 minutes from the Larnaca airport. It has been included in the Natura 2000 Network, as a Special Protection Area (SPA) and a Site of Community Importance (SCI). The objective of the project was the formulation of the Environmental Management Plan of “Oroklini Lake and Wetland”, which aims to the protection, management and enhancement of the natural environment, taking into account the existing socioeconomic conditions. I.A.CO was responsible for the elaboration of an integrated hydrological study of the Oroklini Lake.

Client: Environment Department Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment Cyprus subcontracted by NERCO – N. Chlykas & Associates (Greece)

Region: Cyprus

Type: Ecology, Water & Flood Management

Duration: 10/2010 – 11/2010

Other Partners: NERCO – N. Chlykas & Associates (Greece)

Oroklini Lake is in the Larnaka district of Cyprus and is located about 10 minutes from the Larnaca airport. It has been included in the Natura 2000 Network, as a Special Protection Area (SPA) and a Site of Community Importance (SCI). The site qualifies as an SPA because of the numbers of two nesting species the Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) and the Spur-winged Lapwing (Vanellus spinosus), both are Birds Directive Annex I species. The site is also an SCI for its halophytic marsh vegetation.

The objective of the project was the formulation of the Environmental Management Plan of “Oroklini Lake and Wetland”, which aims to the protection, management and enhancement of the natural environment, taking into account the existing socioeconomic conditions.

I.A.CO was responsible for the elaboration of an integrated hydrological study of the Oroklini Lake.

The area of Oroklini Lake consists of three shallow brackish lakes in an area of marine deposits that only hold water during the rainy months of the year and three large saline canals to the south of the site. What remains today is thought to be part of a much bigger wetland that used to merge with the Larnaca salt lakes in the south. Today the site is fragmented by a motorway and secondary roads and surrounded by development.

The tasks that were successfully completed and the services that were provided were:

• Detailed water balance taking into account all sources of inflows (runoff from the catchment area, direct rainfall on the lake area, volume of water seeping from groundwater, etc.) and losses (evaporation and outflow)
• Development of storage capacity curve and surface area curve of the lake using available DEM (Digital Elevation Model), which was processed appropriately by ArcGIS software
• Determination of the water elevation, the surface area and the volume of water stored in the lake at the selected period
• Water balance on a monthly basis