Participatory monitoring, forecasting, control and socio-economic impacts of eutrophication and algal blooms in river basins districts (LIFE GISBLOOM)

Eutrophication and algal blooms in lakes, rivers and estuaries constitute a major environmental challenge. This is a particular problem in Finland’s inland and coastal waters, which do not currently meet environmental standards despite increasing efforts to reduce nutrient loadings in river basins. Climate change may exacerbate this situation in the future. For example, there could be increased runoff from large areas of cultivated land without vegetative protection during winters. The resulting algal blooms would be a risk to the health of both humans and animals, and would significantly decrease the ecological status and recreational value of water courses. The GISBLOOM project aims to build capacity to ensure better integration of climate change into river basin management plans in Finland. It will demonstrate an integrated model to quantify the effects of different climate-change scenarios to help tackle threats of eutrophication and algal blooms.The project intends to improve understanding of algal blooms and their responses to management measures in lakes and coastal areas. It will use an innovative combination of nationwide data and models for hydrology, land-use changes and nutrient loads to generate data and real-time forecasts for algal blooming in river basins and around 48 000 Finnish lakes on a daily basis.