Background
Lake ecosystems are highly valued by citizens and many businesses due to their importance for biodiversity, recreation and tourism, the provision of clean water for drinking and irrigation, fisheries and energy production. Despite these recognized values, degradation of lake environments across Europe is severe. Legacy pollutants in soils and sediments and climate change are expected to maintain or worsen the situation. To respond to WFD needs, and the biodiversity and climate crises, more innovative solutions and systems are needed to deliver lake restoration and enhance the ecosystem services that lakes provide to society and the economy.
Objectives
FutureLakes is pioneering the transformation of lake restoration across Europe by demonstrating a suite of wide-ranging in-lake and catchment innovations with special emphasis on nature-based, circular and biodiversity-focused solutions. Demonstrating integration of these solutions in operational lake management in six large European lakes (Demo Sites) will deliver a Blueprint for lake protection and restoration to turn promising technical innovations from niche measures to become mainstream approaches in lake basin management planning. This includes demonstrating more effective and inclusive collaboration in water governance and showcasing innovations in policy implementation and green financing.
Finnish demo and innovation site
The Finnish Demo Sites in FutureLakes is Lake Vesijärvi in southern Finland, in which successful restoration of a eutrophied lake will be showcased together with the key stakeholder Vesijärvi Foundation. Additionally, innovative measures such as a combined sand-filter and wetland system together with algal harvesting will be piloted on operational scales.
More information
Laura Härkönen, Senior Research Scientist, Finnish Environment Institute (Syke), firstname.lastname@syke.fi