Multidisciplinary teams of experts, coordinated by both the Tisza Klub from Szolnok, Hungary, and the Pro Europa Ligaf rom Tárgu Mureş, Romania, have focused their study on the tributaries of the Tisza since 1991. The aim of these investigations has been the assessing of the ecological condition by estimating the biodiversity, the consequences of biotope degradation and pollution as well as the foreshadowing of the human impact on aquatic ecosystems and on the ones neighbouring them. The first volume to comprise the experts' results came out in 1995 and hinged on the Mureş/Maros river basin.

The second volume "The Criş/Körös River Va||eys" was published in 1997, and the current year marks the publishing of the volume here and of the one concerning the Upper Tisza. The present study is a remarkable and prestigious follow-up summing up the results of the team's work on the whole stream of the River Someş/Szamos in 1992 and 1996. The multilateral approach, including geological, geographical, pedological data, chemical analyses, different fields of biology and ecology, confer a monographic value on the study, making it into an excellent scientific instrument, both theoretically and practically. The remarkable amount of information comprised on these pages serves not only as the up-dating of the ecological data bank regarding this basin, but it can also provide a solid basis for implementing the monitoring of biodiversity, of human impact on this river, or even for foreshadowing future initiatives in the ecological rehabilitation or restoration of the seriously damaged sections. Thus, the information is accessible not only to specialists in various fields, but also to governmental institutions or environmental non-governmental organizations. The volume on "The Maros/Mureş River Valley" published in 1997 was the first meant for a wide dissemination. All the scientific volumes of the "Tiscia monograph series" will be doubled by their bilingual (Romanian/Hungarian) popular counterparts allowing thus a wide distribution to the unspecialized public.

The interest in the ecological corridors, the humid areas and especially the rivers is the very focus of scientists' attention, of environmental organizations and of governments everywhere. The reason for this need is a practical one. Rivers do not take into account the political state borders. They connect different countries, peoples, and cultures, carrying not only their fundamental life source, but also their waste. In order to protect the green corridors it is absolutely necessary that neighbouring countries cooperate, setting themselves their basic aim to find out what the present condition of these green corridors is and what factors endanger them. It is also the motivation these campaigns are based on and realized, the value of their results and the scientific precision of the Romanian-Hungarian team of experts place them far beyond the confines of cross-border cooperation, providing a model of international validity.

It is no accident that the results presented in these volumes have aroused interest within the European programme NoLIMITS (Networking of Long-term Integrated Monitoring in Terrestrial Systems). The aim of the programme initiated within the European Network for Research in Global Change is to set up an integrated monitoring network for the environment, "...which addresses local, national, European and global scale requirements for policy-related data and information and to provide a focus for scientific collaboration related to research on environmental change and its consequences." This constitutes the basis for the promotion of a wide cooperation between the countries in Central and Eastern Europe in order for them to reach a common strategy of ecological action. The data within this book meet this project being able to serve as a practical binder in initiating the first contact of all the parties involved.

Botond J., Kiss
Scientific Secretary
Danube Delta Research and Design Institute
Romania