Our general research area for this project was comparing the economic benefits of the Danube River to the problems that it has environmentally. We started out by gathering general information about the Danube to give the audience a little bit of background. With our majors being economics and zoology, we wanted to have those topics be the focus of our presentation. We then found sources and statistics about the economic benefits along with the problems of the ecosystem. This then led us to developing our research question which asked if the Danube’s economic benefits can be enjoyed without sacrificing the river’s ecosystem. This connected our different majors and helped us to develop a conclusion about a real world issue. We found that the Danube contributes largely to the transportation of goods, renewable energy, a good source of water, and a big tourism site. With this Danube passing through 10 different countries, a lot of people in Europe rely heavily on this river. We also found that due to this human activity, the river is loaded with multiple kinds of antibiotics and it is one of the most polluted rivers in Europe. Creating space for more ships and the use of fuel damages the surrounding areas of the ecosystem. From these findings, we concluded that changes to either of these areas go hand and hand. Reducing waste will likely have financial consequences but making these changes will open it up for more economic growth. For someone who wants to go into business and maybe eventually law school, making research projects is something I will have to do often. Even though it may not be on this particular topic, this gave me good experience and will prepare me for similar situations in the future.
Authors: Jack Collins & Jakab Lippman
Advisor: Yildrim Dilek, Geology
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