Central Baltic Project Database - Institutional cooperation and cooperation networks

iWater developed a city-specific integrated stormwater management strategy

kersti — Fri, 19 Mar 2021 10:26:02 +0000

Integrated Stormwater Management (iWater) project improves the urban planning in the cities of the Baltic Sea region through development of comprehensive stormwater management system which is integrated into the urban development processes of the city at all levels.

In result, each of 7 partner cities (Helsinki, Turku, Tartu, Jelgava, Riga, Söderhamn and Gävle) developed its own tailor-made solution – a city-specific stormwater management strategy. Each city also established an institutional model for stormwater management.

Project was implemented applying science-practice collaboration model developed by the Aalto University. The university helped to ensure the close cooperation between academic field and the practicioners when the project outputs were being prepared, when actions/strategies were planned in the pilot sites.

Since integrated storm management is relatively new subject in some BSR cities and knowledge, experience level are quite different, capacity building activities played and important role in the project. International, national capacity building workshops other events were organised where knowledge was presented, exchanged, project outputs were discussed and shared. 3 iWater summer schools (61 students from 17 countries/16 universities) were organised. In result 19 creative, innovative and multi-functional stormwater management solutions for 7 pilot sites of 7 iWater partner cities.

The project developed the following practical tools and guidelines which can be useful for the municipalities, urban planners, architects etc. outside iWater partnership:

Integrated Storm Water Management System Guidelines
The main purpose of the guidelines is to help other cities establish a comprehensive storm-water management approach and integrate it into the urban development processes at all levels. The guidelines provide very concrete tips, tools how to plan an implement the integrated storm water management in the municipality from scratch trough cycle (planning, implementation and monitoring).

Green Area Factor excel tool
Green Factor is a practical and user-friendly excel-based tool for urban planning. It ensures sufficient green infrastructure when building new lots in a dense urban environment. The Green Factor is calculated as the ratio of the scored green area to lot area. The target level for the lot can be achieved flexibly by the garden designer by selecting some of the 39 green elements, such as planted and maintained vegetation or various run-off water solutions, when designing the lot.

This tool was developed for the first time in 1997 in Berlin - “Biotope Area Factor1”. Later on similar tools were created/adapted based on Berlin also in other cities, for example Stockholm, Malm, Seattle and Toronto. Similar tool was developed also in Helsinki as a part of the EU-funded “Climate-proof city – tools for planning” (ILKKA) project in 2014. Based on the experiences with the tool’s usage and due to the increasing importance of stormwater management, an updated version of this tool was to be developed within the iWater project.
The Tool has been adopted and piloted in partner cities during the project: Riga, Jelgava, Tartu (Jaamamõisa area), Gävle, Söderhamn and Turku, and finally incorporated in the land-use planning process

Integrated Stormwater Management Toolbox
This toolbox introduces the most commonly used approaches and concrete tools for urban stormwater management. It gathers useful information for those interested in, or working with, the design, planning or management of urban water, in particular, landscape architects, architects, as well as urban planners and designers. The information is in an easily adaptable form, including further reading for those who wish to dive deeper. Furthermore, the toolbox focuses on approaches that are applicable or developed for northern climate conditions.

Tags:

Urban Development

Water management

Institutional cooperation and cooperation networks

Attachment:

Integrated Storm Water Management dissemination material

Helsinki Green Area Factor Tool - User manual for the Excel-based tool

External link:

Project website

Category:

Urban area covered with integrated urban management

At a glance text:

The iWater project designed stormwater planning tools and approaches and developed Integrated Stormwater Management concept that supports sustainable urban planning and create higher quality and more resilient urban environments in the Baltic Sea region.

Project link:

Integrated Storm Water Management

NutriTrade - Reduced nutrient load through cost-effective measures

Ari Brozinski — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 06:25:32 +0000

NutriTrade reduced nutrient load to the Baltic Sea through cost-effective pilot measures. These included pilot projects, creating a crowdfunding platform for nutrient offset and policy analysis.

Pilot projects

The Pilots developed new concepts for nutrient reduction and provided new information on the feasibility of the methods and on their cost-efficiency as a nutrient removal measure
In total, the pilots contributed to the removal of 6 t of phosphorus from the Baltic Sea in 2015-18 and will continue to cut phosphorus loading in the future.
Pilot Gypsum reduced phosphorus runoff by 50% (1.3-2.3 t in the first 1,5 years).
Pilot Fish resulted in phosphorus removal of 4,2 t by 2018 and will continue to remove phosphorus in the future, too.
Pilot Mussel removed 65 kg phosphorus.

Pilot measures are being put into practice in other geographical areas and institutionalised:

Finnish authorities are planning the introduction of gypsum amendment of fields into the public support schemes.
Up to 3500 hectares will be treated by gypsum in 2018-20 in river Vantaa and Porvoo catchment areas.
Gypsum treatment will be tested e.g. in Poland.

The Nutribute crowdfunding platform

A functioning nutrient offset platform for the Baltic Sea available at nutribute.org enables the meeting of project owners and voluntary donors.
A transparent framework for measuring cost efficiency (€/kg) of nutrient reduction efforts and identifying new innovative reduction methods.
A mechanism that enables companies, municipalities, associations, private citizens etc. to neutralize their nutrient footprint.
A sustainable financing mechanism for innovations/measures which reduce nutrients from the Baltic Sea but have not yet become commercially viable or included in institutional financing frameworks

The policy briefs published by Pilot Gypsum recommend large-scale use of gypsum amendment in Finland and consider it also elsewhere in the Baltic Sea region. The Policy Briefs have been utilized by HELCOM as well as the Finnish Ministry of the Environment and the Finnish Ministry of the Agriculture and Forestry in planning a support scheme for the measure.

Tags:

Institutional cooperation and cooperation networks

Waterways lakes and rivers

Attachment:

Nutribute brochure

NutriTrade Policy Brief 1, Gypsum Amendment and Large Scale Use

NutriTrade Policy Brief 2 Gypsum Amendment and Policy

NutriTrade Policy Brief 3 Nutrient Offsets

Pilot fish final report

Pilot mussel final report

Summary of Pilot Gypsum

Category:

Reduction of nutrients, hazardous substances and toxins inflow into the Baltic

At a glance text:

Crowdfunding platform for nutrient offset
Successful pilot areas with 6 t reduced phosphorus
Implementation on policy level

Project link:

Piloting a Nutrient Trading Scheme in the Central Baltic

FEM - providing information to Estonian women living in Finland

Elisa Bertieri — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 13:57:58 +0000

Compared to local residents, foreigners encounter bigger challenges to enter the labour market. FEM project focused on offering support to Estonian women moving to Finland.

To enable smoother access into the Finnish labour market, both for the Estonian women planning to move to Finland and for those already living in the country, the project established info points ”infotuba” in Turku and Helsinki and peer support groups as well as several information events both in Finland and Estonia. The events covered issues such as:

• economic coping
• children and education
• language, language barriers, and culture
• local people's attitudes, stereotypes
• labour market

Altogether 165 people visited or contacted the info points and 260 people participated in information activities.

Tags:

Institutional cooperation and cooperation networks

Social inclusion and equal opportunities

Category:

Improved community

Project link:

Unlocking the Potential of Estonian Migrant Women