Stockholm university

Research project Innovation and partnerships for effective programs of measures for good water quality

Innovation and partnerships for effective programs of measures for good water quality and good ecological status – with pilot study for Askrikefjärden

Innovaation och partnerskap

Development of effective action programs to achieve and also in the long term be able to maintain good water quality and good ecological status in aquatic environments on land and in coasts and seas is a major and complex challenge with continued need for solutions. Solutions are also required, for example by national environmental regulation in accordance with the EU Water Framework Directive. Meeting the challenge requires new syntheses of data and innovative methods for finding and implementing effective solutions, based on both solid scientific understanding and site-specific practical knowledge. Close collaboration is also needed between various involved municipalities and other actors who share responsibility and interest to improve each aquatic environment. Municipal environmental coordinators have networks and communicate around this challenge, but local goals and interests may differ markedly, making it difficult to find and agree on common denominators and synergistic action programs that can effectively improve water quality and ecological status.

Project description

With Askrikefjärden in focus for a first pilot study, the project will compile available data for initial testing of newly developed, innovative methods to distinguish the contributions to total nutrient loads to the bay from both now active and long-lived legacy sources that still remain in soil, groundwater and sediments after previous nutrient inputs to the bay's catchment area. Distinguishing these contributions is needed because different types of measures and different localizations of them are effective in targeting and mitigating these different types of sources. To meet the challenge of achieving significant and sustainable water quality improvements, new data syntheses are also needed to test and further develop novel (combinations of) methods and solutions and their effectiveness, using both new scientific understanding and site-specific practical knowledge. The first pilot study with focus on Askrikefjärden in this preparatory project will develop and show relevant pathways forward in these respects, including through networks and communication platforms for synergistic collaboration of various actors in identifying, planning and implementing effective measures to achieve good water quality and good ecological aquatic status.

Project members

Members

Georgia Destouni

Professor i hydrologi

Department of Physical Geography
Gia Destouni

Anna Granström

Miljösamordnare

Lidingö stad
Anna Granström

Maria Carmen Prieto Hierro

Forskningsingenjör

Department of Physical Geography
CPrieto

Georgia Destouni

Professor i hydrologi

Department of Physical Geography
Gia Destouni

Jerker Idestam-Almquist

Kommunekolog

Lidingö Stad
Jerker Idestam-Almquist

Zahra Kalantari

Forskare

Department of Physical Geography
Zahra Kalantari

Eva Robins

Landskapsarkitekt

Lidingö Stad
Eva Robins

Publications

More about this project

Based on the Askrikefjärden pilot study, a subsequent, larger and longer-term implementation project will scale up methodology and collaboration networks further to regional and national scale studies with involvement of additional actors of relevance at and across the different scales. This is needed for significantly enhancing our ability to meet corresponding major challenges of developing and implementing effective action programs for good water quality and good ecological aquatic status in different regions, throughout Sweden and internationally.