When we entered 2020, Biowater was half-way. Our original plans for the third Summer Camp was to meet at the Hurdalssjøen Hotel, at a scenery lake site in Norway. We envisaged to continue our tradition with a combination of scientific meetings and social gatherings. However, as with so many other meetings these days, we had to change our plans. Hence, our third annual camp went virtual, and more than 30 scientists and PhD students met through a combination of Zoom, Teams and Skype over three full days in the last week of May. In our respective living rooms, bed rooms, kitchens, basements, and attics, we discussed the progress of the different modules and outlined how we will work to ensure further success of the centre, including a continuation beyond 2022.
Half way there – and pleased with the progress!
Overall, we must be allowed to say that Biowater has made great progress until now. The credit for this needs to be granted to our enthusiastic centre members, including PhDs, supervisors, post.docs., module leads, institute focal points, and all the other members that have done their part to ensure that the research has progressed. Summing up our all achievements since the start in early autumn 2017 cannot be done in this news item, but we can highlight the following:
Nordic scenarios for land use change due to the bioeconomy are developed
Biowater has
- developed a set of land use scenarios for a future with bioeconomy in the Nordic countries, the so-called Nordic Bioeconomy Pathways,
- these scenarios look into different possibilities on how the bioeconomy may affect our rural areas
- organised stakeholder workshops and interviews in each of the four countries to further articulate these scenarios for agricultural and forested activities and management
- developed a systematic method to compare and aggregate the stakeholder opinions, and thereby going from qualitative to quantitative scenarios
We are also setting up models in case catchments in each country, so we can model how the different scenarios may affect water quality in the future.
Effects of land use changes on water resources
Biowater has
- developed a database of 69 Nordic small headwater catchments with data on concentrations of C, N, P, runoff and catchment characteristics. The streams cover three main types of land uses: Agriculture, forestry, and near-pristine forests
- performed statistical analyses and trend analyses of these data
- prepared data for modelling on how especially peatlands may be affected by the bioeconomy
- drafted scientific manuscripts on the topic; with PhD students and post.docs. amongst the (main) authors.
The Nordic energy market in a future with more renewables
PhD-student Faisal Bin Ashraf was recently examined (29 May 2020) at the University of Oulu. He has investigated how the energy market of the Nordic countries may change with bioeconomy. He found that
- the use of hydropeaking will most likely increase when more renewable energy is introduced to the energy market (Hydropeaking is a way to operate a hydropower plant, where daily peak electricity demand can be met by releasing pulses of water to increase power production)
- This will have impacts on river hydrological and morphological processes and therefore on aquatic life.
Dr. Ashraf’s findings should be of great interest both to hydropower companies, river basin management boards, and national managers and policy makers within energy and the environment.
New knowledge om how to mitigate the negative effects of the green shift
Biowater has
- produced new knowledge on constructed wetlands’ ability to retain nutrients
- compiled experiences on different structural measures to reduce nutrient flow from ditches
Biowater is also investigating how wide natural buffer zones should be to avoid serious losses of biodiversity when forests are clear-cut. The analyses of the biological material is still on-going, and we look forward to the results.
These analyses on mitigation measures are of high importance for fulfilling the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive.
Effects on ecosystem services
Biowater has
- developed an analytical framework for an integrated assessment of the changes in ecosystem services, as a consequence of the foreseen changes in the catchments
- conducted structured face-to-face interviews with numerous respondents (recreation and other cultural services) on their views of the future rural landscape and ecosystem services of water (in six catchments in four Nordic countries).
Ecosystem services are services provided to us people by nature. Examples of such services related to water can be clean waters for recreation (swimming, boating, fishing or just pure enjoyment of watching lakes and rivers), drinking water supply, water for irrigation, etc.
PhD. courses, special sessions and journal issues
Biowater has also
- organised three successful training courses for PhD students in two countries
- organised a well-attended special session at the Land Use and Water Quality Conference in Aarhus, Denmark, 2019
- Guest-edited a special issue in AMBIO, due to be published in December 2020.
Plans for the future
By summer 2020, Biowater has two more years to run, and we have several plans for the rest of our centre’s lifetime.
- First of all, we wish to see our remaining PhD students safely through their works, as they have done a large part of the science in this Centre.
- Following our successful special session at the Land Use and Water Quality (LUWQ) Conference in 2019, we have now secured a new special session at the LUWQ 2021. The deadline for inputs to this conference is on 10 October.
- With increasingly more research results, the time has come for more popularised information of the findings of the centre. Identified interest groups or end-users may be public managers at national and local levels, industry, farmers, forestry companies, energy companies, interest organisations, and policy makers, to mention some. Hence, a strategy for conveying main messages from Biowater in a reader-friendly way will be made. We also plan for national stakeholder meetings in autumn 2021, and a final Stakeholder/end-user meeting in the spring 2022.
We also have many other interesting topics to inform about, so please keep posted! News will be distributed on these pages, and tweeted to our followers!
