Related EU Projects

Water and wastewater facilities frequently represent the largest and most energy intensive loads owned and operated by water utilities, representing up to 35% of municipal energy use. The E²STORMED project aims to improve water management and energy efficiency in the urban water cycle and in buildings by promoting the use of innovative storm water solutions such as Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in six Mediterranean cities.

To meet this objective, E²STORMED has developed a Decision Support Tool (DST) to include energy efficiency and environmental criteria in urban storm water management decisions. The DST has been developed using the six cities to compare and evaluate different scenarios of combining conventional and SuDS drainage systems. The results of applying this tool allow more sustainable, informed and objective storm water management.

The use of the E²STORMED DST will encourage the construction of Sustainable Drainage System. The E²STORMED provides help to estimate the construction and maintenance costs of these infrastructures. According to the results obtained in the six pilot cities of the E²STORMED project, the costs of the SuDS scenarios is similar to the conventional scenarios, so in most of the cases, new resources are not needed for storm water management. Although, the SuDS scenarios have clear benefits for the energy efficiency and the urban ecosystems.

In order to encourage this change in the storm water management, local and regional stakeholders related with water and energy management can be engaged in this decision process through meetings and working groups, as explained in the E²STORMED Transition Manual.

https://www.iiama.upv.es/iiama/src/elementos/Proyectos/e2stormed/E-STORMED-Decision-Support-Tool.exe

https://www.iiama.upv.es/iiama/src/elementos/Proyectos/e2stormed/D.3E.03%20Decision%20Support%20Tool%20Guidelines.pdf

https://www.iiama.upv.es/iiama/src/elementos/Proyectos/e2stormed/D.3B.01%20Report%20on%20stormwater%20management.pdf

https://www.iiama.upv.es/iiama/src/elementos/Proyectos/e2stormed/D.3C.01%20Report%20on%20management%20and%20decision%20asessement%20tools.pdf

https://www.iiama.upv.es/iiama/src/elementos/Proyectos/e2stormed/D.3A.01%20Report%20on%20energy%20in%20the%20urban%20water%20cycle.pdf

https://www.iiama.upv.es/iiama/src/elementos/Proyectos/e2stormed/D.3C.01%20Report%20on%20ecosystem%20services.pdf

https://www.iiama.upv.es/iiama/src/elementos/Proyectos/e2stormed/D.4A.02%20Report%20of%20the%20DST%20application/3.%20Report%20about%20DST%20application%20-%20Malta.pdf

https://www.iiama.upv.es/iiama/src/elementos/Proyectos/e2stormed/D.4A.03%20Strategic%20Action%20Plans/3.%20Strategic%20Action%20Plan%20Malta.pdf

https://www.iiama.upv.es/iiama/src/elementos/Proyectos/e2stormed/D.4A.04%20Transition%20Manuals/3.%20Transition%20Manual%20Malta.pdf

Slovakia has sufficient water resources for all kinds of uses. However, these water resources are not evenly distributed and in recent years problems of supply (both drinking water and water for commercial use) have arisen in some parts of Slovakia due to inefficient water use. In particular, freshwater, especially drinking water is often wasted.

Efficient water management must take into account floods and droughts, the role of water in the biosphere, human impacts on water quantity and quality, prevention of pollution and protection of water resources and water systems – water works, water for agriculture, water for inhabitants and industry, wastewater treatment and the discharge of water. Last but not least, climate change might also be having an impact. Even though areas with temporary shortage of water are found only in certain parts of Slovakia, actions to address the prevention of water shortage should be carried out throughout the country. 

The main objective of the WATLIFE project was to change common attitudes and inefficient water use practices that are causing shortages and pollution in Slovakia. This change would be achieved through increased awareness of the importance of water and its sustainable use among the general public and among stakeholders, in compliance with the Water Framework Directive. The project would operate alongside communication campaigns undertaken by the Commission and the Slovak government.

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/Projects/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.dspPage&n_proj_id=3503&docType=pdf

This study involves the testing of a framework for multi-criteria modelling and support of multi-stakeholder decision processes within the context of developing a new water level management policy for a regulated lake river system in Finland.

In this framework the stakeholders were involved in the decision process from the problem structuring stage to the group consensus seeking stage, followed by a stage of seeking public acceptance for the policy. The framework aimed at creating an evolutionary learning process. In this paper, focus was also on the use of a new interactive method for finding and identifying Pareto-optimal alternatives. Role playing experiments with students were used to test the practical applicability of a negotiation support procedure called the method of improving directions. The study has also developed  a preference programming approach for the aggregation of the stakeholder opinions in the final evaluation of alternatives and group consensus seeking. This approach consists of individual prioritisations as well as group interval models and consensus seeking. In addition, the approach was previously studied in transport planning and nuclear power related settings.  

HÄMÄLÄINEN, R., KETTUNEN, E., EHTAMO, H. and MARTTUNEN, M. (2001). Evaluating a Framework for Multi-Stakeholder Decision Support in Water Resources Management. Group Decision and Negotiation, [online] 10(331–353). Available at: http://ftp://193.2.92.44/students/podipl/UVR/Hamalainen_et_al_2001.pdf [Accessed 31 Jan. 2018].

In light of the real need to practically improve the environmental performance of irrigation systems and to prevent the misuse of water, ENORASIS project developed an intelligent irrigation Decision Support System (ENORASIS Service Platform and Components), which enables sustainable irrigation management for farmers and water management organizations.

ENORASIS is a server-based system that gathers data from satellite observations and field equipment (wireless sensor networks), that uses the next-generation weather prediction model Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) to provide high spatial accuracy estimations for precipitation. It combines all this information with specific crop characteristics (using FAO56 model) to produce daily optimal irrigation advice that is communicated to farmers via web or mobile. Accordingly, farmers may use this real-time information to schedule irrigation activities also in interaction with other cultivation tasks and monitor water consumption both in terms of quantity and cost. Water Management Authorities may use water consumption monitoring data to estimate short and long term pressures on water reservoirs, set water prices as drivers for sustainable irrigation and apply pricing schemes that incorporate the real costs of water (in accordance with the Water Framework Directive - WFD).

The project has achieved the development of the ENORASIS platform and other components (such as the Meteo Analysis Tool, Wireless Sensor Network - WSN, Digital Signature Standard - DSS algorithm). In addition, interfaces with billing systems and the relative subsystems and functionalities were also developed. Web and mobile ENORASIS users’ interfaces and Geographic Information System (GIS) application of ENORASIS were prepared, with a friendly, easy-to-use layout targeted to end-users’ needs.

The ENORASIS system has been tested for 2 cultivation periods in 5 pilot implementations covering 9 different crops, 4 different climatic conditions and 2 operational approaches. The performance of pilots was validated and assessed against specific Key Performance Indicators. Four policy workshops, three scientific ones and a final conference have been organised with around 500 participants in total, accomplishing proper dissemination of the project and its results and contributing to policy dialogue about sustainable irrigation management in Europe.

Dissemination material:

ENORASIS leaflet - Link

ENORASIS Poster 1 - Link

ENORASIS Poster 2 - Link

ENORASIS 1st Info Factsheet - Link

ENORASIS 1st Newsletter - Link

ENORASIS A1 Poster first presented in STEP-WISE and STREAM Final Conference - Link

ENORASIS 2nd Info Factsheet - Link

ENORASIS 3rd Info Factsheet - Link

ENORASIS 4th Info Factsheet - Link

ENORASIS 2nd Newsletter - Link

ENORASIS 3rd Newsletter - Link

ENORASIS 4th Newsletter - Link

ENORASIS 5th Newsletter - Link

Project Deliverables:

D1.1 SOTA Report - Link

D1.2 Agricultural Process Analysis Report – Link

D2.1 Report on Irrigation Water Governance in the context of WFD and CAP - Link

D2.2 ENORASIS Business Models - Link

D2.3 ENORASIS Platform Use Case Scenarios and User Requirements - Link

D5.2 ENORASIS User Manual - Link

D5.3 ENORASIS Technical Documentation - Link

D6.1 Pilot Implementation Guidelines - Link

D6.2 Pilots' Interim Report - Link

D6.3 Pilots' Final Report - Link

D6.4 Pilots Assessment Report - Link

D7.4 Report on ENORASIS Events (scientific/ policy workshops) - Link

D7.5 Report on ENORASIS Events (final conference) - Link

D7.14 Policy Recommendations for Decision Makers and Water Management Organisations (Policy brief) - Link

The Emerging Risks of Chemicals in the Environment programme aims to conduct research to predict how the environment and its functioning will respond to chemical exposure. The anticipated high level outcome is a transformation in the way chemical risk assessment is considered; to move towards an ecosystems approach with greater ecological relevance.

There are many tens of thousands of chemicals that we use in our homes, industries and food systems and the market is growing by about 2,000 new compounds per year. Chemical use is dynamic; looking to the future, the changing demographics of a globally rising population (and, in developed countries, an increasingly ageing and medicated population) will lead to more drugs discharged through the water systems; changing agricultural practices, energy and material needs are likely to lead to new effluents and pressures; new pest and disease pressures and increasing resistance to products will alter use of agrochemical and veterinary products; green chemistry has the potential to drive the development of novel chemistries in the future; and a focus on recycling and reuse will change how we use products and manage waste streams.

The persistence and fate of chemicals entering the environment are controlled by complex interactions with natural processes. Ecosystems are exposed to combinations of chemical mixtures and other environmental stressors and environmental changes. The potential impacts of exposure on individual organisms has been the focus of considerable research, yet understanding of dynamic, complex and long-term exposure and the outcomes and implications for critical ecosystems and the services they provide, remain uncertain and difficult to predict.

Furthermore, there is ongoing loss of biodiversity and other evidence for environmental degradation and it is not known what contribution chemicals make towards this. Human exposure to chemicals via the environment (such as through drinking water or the food chain) can result in unpredicted but important impacts, and appreciation of compounds to which humans are sensitive is important when trying to understand and manage chemicals in the environment.

This research programme will deliver fundamental process understanding underpinning chemical behaviour and impact in the environment and a predictive capability to support chemicals management, in three interlinked research questions:

1. What are the impacts of chemicals on populations, ecosystems and ecosystem services?

2. What are the risks from chemical mixtures?

3. How important are chemical stressors in relation to other stressors?

Chemicals in the Environment scoping workshop – http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/funded/programmes/chemicals/chemicals-workshop/

The term ‘emerging contaminants’ is generally used to refer to compounds previously not considered or known to be significant to groundwater (in terms of distribution and/or concentration) which are now being more widely detected. As analytical techniques improve, previously undetected organic micropollutants are being observed in the aqueous environment. Many emerging contaminants remain unregulated, but the number of regulated contaminants will continue to grow slowly over the next several decades. There is a wide variety of sources and pathways for these compounds to enter the environment and these include agriculture and urban areas. Some of these contaminants can have human or ecological health effects and there is a need for better understanding of their fate in environmental systems. This report provides a short review of the types of organic micropollutants which can be found in the aqueous environment. These include nanomaterials, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, industrial additives and by-products, personal care products and fragrances, water treatment by-products, flame/fire retardants and surfactants, as well as caffeine and nicotine metabolites and hormones. Many of the compounds are relatively small polar molecules which are not effectively removed by conventional drinking water treatment using activated carbon. Pesticides and some industrial compounds are presently covered by the Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater Regulations and the Drinking Water Directive. Additional parameters, such as bisphenol A and nonyl-phenol are anticipated to be covered by revisions to the Drinking Water Directive. Others are currently unregulated. In order to assess the hazards presented by such compounds, information on usage, persistence, leachability and a robust sensitive analytical method is required. The UK metaldehyde problem was not originally discovered due to lack of an analytical method and was exacerbated by recalcitrance in water treatment. For many pesticides these requirements are fulfilled and an assessment of risk of leaching to groundwater can be made. However, for pesticide metabolites this information can be sparse and for compounds such as pharmaceuticals it can be lacking. A simple hazard assessment for currently approved pesticides was made from information on UK usage, persistence, sorption to soil carbon and published leaching indices. The following compounds were assessed as having the greatest potential for leaching to water: 2,4-D, amidosulfuron, bentazone, clopyralid, dicamba, florasulam, fosthiazate, imazaquin, iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium, maleic hydrazide, MCPA, MCPP-P, metribuzin, metsulfuronmethyl, quinmerac, oxamyl, and triclopyr with a further 46 also having potential. Of these, 19 had an octanol/water partition coefficient (Kow) less than that of metaldehyde and therefore are likely to be incompletely removed by water treatment. A simple assessment for pesticide metabolites, based only on organic carbon/water partition coefficient (Koc) and persistence data, in this study gave results which agreed in principle with other studies. The different approaches indicate that the metabolites of chlorothalonil, cyanazine, diflufenican, flufenacet, iodosulfuron-methyl, metaldehyde, metazachlor and metsulfuron-methyl are likely to pose the greatest risk to drinking water. In many cases these metabolites are derived from parents which have a lesser risk. Other organic micropollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, cannot as yet be assessed in the same way due to a lack of persistence data since the majority of persistence studies have been directed at water treatment. A range of organic micropollutants from urban settings have been detected in ground and surface water. Commonly detected compounds include: bisphenol A, OR/11/013 viii carbamazepine, galaxolide, ibuprofen, iopamidol, phthalates, phenyl ethoxylates, and sulfamethoxazole. Case studies show that a small number of contaminants may be used to characterise the contaminant loading and also be used to assess the migration pathways in urban areas. Data interpreted by BGS from the Environment Agency’s monitoring programme for organic pollutants indicates that the 30 most frequently detected compounds comprise both established and emerging compounds and include a number of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, petroleum compounds, triazine herbicides, chlorinated solvents, degradation products and THMs, caffeine, DEET and industrial compounds such as bisphenol A and tributyl phosphate. Specific determinands include a range of currently licensed and phased out pesticides with a few metabolites, pharmaceuticals including carbamazepine and triclosan, caffeine, nicotine and food additives and alkyl phosphates. These data exhibit hot spots which may indicate possible research areas. Future research should focus on a compound identified in the literature and detected by Environment Agency monitoring. Possible topics could be a study of migration through the unsaturated zone. In many cases the mechanism for migration of emerging contaminants from the surface to groundwater is very unclear.

Final report – http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/14557/1/OR11013.pdf

Diffuse losses of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural areas contribute significantly to eutrophication of waterways, lakes, estuaries and coastal zones and water pollution is a growing and serious problem across much of the world. The role of wetlands in improving surface water quality is well known. The capacity of wetlands to improve water quality is dependent on a large number of parameters that have been widely studied, such as vegetation cover or type, water retention time, climatic variables, and also their size and spatial arrangement in the watershed. However, the question where wetlands should be located in agricultural catchments to achieve the most effective nutrient removal at the catchment level has not been clearly resolved.

This project aims to determine the optimal sizing and location for wetlands in agricultural catchments to reduce nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) loads in catchments. The study consists of two parts performed on study areas with different landscape and climatic conditions. Firstly, potentially suitable wetland restoration/creation sites are identified by using high quality data and geospatial analysis techniques. Secondly, evaluation of the effectiveness of wetland nitrogen and phosphorus removal from surface waters at various potential locations indicated by the geospatial analyses under different hydrological regimes and land use scenarios will be done by using modelling with CLUES (Catchment Land Use for Environmental Sustainability model) and SWAT (Soil and Water and Assessment Tool). Using and integrating different datasets and modelling approaches also plays an important role in the study.

Uuemaa, E.; Palliser, C.; Hughes, A. Tanner, C.(2018). Effectiveness of a Natural Headwater Wetland for Reducing Agricultural Nitrogen Loads. Water, 10 (3), 1−17.w10030287.

Kmoch, A.; Uuemaa, E.; Klug, H.; Cameron, S. G.; (2018). Enhancing Location-Related Hydrogeological Knowledge. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 7 (132, 4).10.3390/ijgi7040132.

Pärn, J.; Henine, H.; Kasak, K.; Kauer, K.; Sohar, K.; Tournebize, J.; Uuemaa, E.; Välik, K.; Mander, Ü.; (2018). Nitrogen and phosphorus discharge from small agricultural catchments predicted from land use and hydroclimate. Land Use Policy, 75, 260−268.10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.03.048.

Uuemaa, E.; Hughes, O. A.; Tanner, C. C.; (2018). Identifying Feasible Locations for Wetland Creation or Restoration in Catchments by Suitability Modelling Using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Water, 10 (4), 1−15.w10040464.

Mõisja, K.; Oja,T.; Uuemaa, E.; Hastings, J. T. (2017). Completeness and classification correctness of features on topographic maps: An analysis of the Estonian basic map. Transactions in GIS, 30(5), 954-968, DOI:10.1111/tgis.12257  

Aavik, T.; Talve, T.; Thetloff, M.; Uuemaa,E.; Oja, T. (2017). Genetic consequences of landscape change for rare endemic plants – A case study of Rhinanthus osiliensis. Biological Conservation, 210,125−135, 10.1016/j.biocon.2017.04.016. 1.1. 

Uuemaa E., Oja T. (2017) Mapping the Abstractions of Forest Landscape Patterns. In: Remmel T., Perera A. (eds) Mapping Forest Landscape Patterns. Springer, New York, NY, doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7331-6_6

Mõisja, K.; Uuemaa, E.; Oja T.(2016). Integrating small-scale landscape elements into land use/cover: The impact on landscape metrics’ values. Ecological Indicators, 67, 714−722,10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.03.033.

The WETWIN approach for stopping and reversing the ongoing degradation of wetlands was based on the four basic premises of wetland management: wise use, adaptive management, integrated water resource management, and participation of local communities and stakeholders. Seven wetlands were investigated from Africa, Europe and South America.

WETWIN researchers identified a range of problems at the case study sites. These included desiccation and terrestrialisation due to reduced inflows, encroachment and disturbance, pollution and diseases like malaria from mosquito vectors in the tropical wetland habitat. Moreover, the high nutrient content of these wastewaters, plus the nutrient-rich runoff waters coming from the agricultural lands result in eutrophication problems.

Involvement of stakeholders from the case study sites played a crucial role in the project throughout. The WETWIN project applied an ecosystem services approach for characterisation of the natural and socioeconomic statuses of wetlands. Characterisation was followed by the identification of major environmental and livelihood issues/problems at the wetlands. Cause–effect mechanisms behind the problems were explored with the help of the driving-forces, state, impact and responses (DSIR) methodology.

WETWIN researchers were particularly concerned about reducing vulnerability in the wetlands in terms of external impact (EI) and adaptive capacity (AC). Their aim was to apply appropriate management interventions on a local to large scale. These actions could turn the state of the wetlands, and also that of the basin, from vulnerable to resilient.

Wetlands International is a non-profit organisation for conservation of wetlands. They aim to organise several dissemination activities that may include WETWIN factsheets in French, training materials and guidelines, and a brochure on health impact. Further development of a sophisticated model system for the Inner Niger Delta (IND) leading to a high-resolution digital terrain model is also planned.

The outcomes of WETWIN are expected to enhance the recognition of the functions and services that wetland ecosystems provide on local and on river basin scales. The alarming messages of the project about the degradation and vulnerability of wetlands will help to raise awareness in politicians, managers and stakeholders. These interventions will bring conservation, restoration and sustainable management of wetlands more into the limelight.

WETWIN leaflet: http://www.wetwin.eu/downloads/130109_WETwin_leaflet_final_v3.pdf

Open Access publications:

Ecological niche models for the evaluation of management options in an urban floodplain—conservation vs. restoration purposes - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S146290111200144X?via%3Dihub

Quantifying ecosystem service trade-offs: The case of an urban floodplain in Vienna, Austria - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479712003118?via%3Dihub