Building Capacity within Environmental Monitoring to Produce Pollution Load Data from Different Sources for HELCOM Pollution Load Compilations, Balthazar II

Project Description

The overall objective of the Balthazar project was to promote protection of the Baltic Sea protection from hazardous waste and agricultural nutrient loading.

This assignment under the second phase of Balthazar consisted of four individual Work Packages (WP) and the final report:

• The 1st WP, "Identification of obstacles in producing reliable data and collecting the existing data", covered a survey on the obstacles in producing reliable pollution data in Russia.
• The 2nd WP covered "Test cases for data collection" at three major catchments: River Luga, River Roschinka and River Mamonovka. During the implementation of the assignment the scope of the test cases was widened to cover a more detailed investigation of River Luga and an assessment of obstacles in reporting of the River Neva and the River Narva due to their relative importance vis-a-vis the wider framework of the assignment (i.e. the compilation of data on waterborne pollution load to the Baltic Sea - PLC-Water).
• In the 3rd WP two different models were tested and applied to the catchments of the River Luga and River Mamonovka.
• The 4th WP on "Laboratory quality assurance and capacity enhancement" focused on preliminary investment plans for four laboratories in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad areas.
• The final project report forms the 5th WP, "Preparation of guidelines and manuals" as it sums up the experiences and lessons learned in the test cases, modeling activities and laboratory quality assurance activities. It also presents a number of practical recommendations which should provide a good basis for enhancing the data production chain from sampling and chemical analyses to the reporting of the load data.

SYKE implemented the assignment together with its Russian partner ILRAS (Institute of Limnology of the Russia Academy of Sciences) and Russian experts assigned by it. SYKE was the lead consultant and had the management responsibility.

Services provided by SYKE

• Identification of obstacles in producing reliable data and collecting the existing data;
• Establishing test cases for data collection;
• Modelling activities;
• Laboratory quality assurance;
• Preparation of guidelines and recommendations.

More information

Ms. Tea Törnroos, Head of International Affairs Unit, Finnish Environment Institute