The use of active barriers for the nutrient removal and local water quality improvement in Baltic lagoons

There are many attempts to use mussels or algae cultivation for nutrient removal in the South Baltic area. However, due to low market value of cultivated products these developments typically end in the initial stage of demonstration studies and are neither sustainable, nor replicated in other than pilot areas. On the other hand there exist a number of commercial applications called living barriers or rafts (e.g. life rafts, BIOHAVEN® LIVING SHORELINE) aimed at both restoration and rehabilitation of coastal habitats and local enhancement of water quality by nutrient absorption and removal. Our idea is to involve the coastal municipalities in the South Baltic lagoons into the application of so called “active shoreline” units to improve water quality and create bathing conditions inside the South Baltic lagoons, where at normal conditions algal blooms and sediment resuspension prevent recreational bathing. Moreover the use of nutrient absorption devices could be linked to nutrient quota trading - mechanism for connecting effective nutrient abatement measures with voluntary financiers willing to acquire nutrient offset. Therefore, the Living Lagoons project becomes especially relevant to the small lagoon communities which are mostly pressed for the increased removal of phosphorus through the municipal wastewater treatment plants, which are facing operational problems due to sharp fluctuations of population (a tenfold increase during the summer season). The seed funding is needed first, to develop the project concept and application (i) to build the project partnership network including interested coastal communities/municipalities in every South Baltic pilot area (ii) to check the technological feasibility and concept of pilot installations and (iii) is to look into a possibility to establish a mechanism similar to NutriTrade Platform (developed by the NutriTrade project of the EU CBP) with special focus on the application in the cross-border water bodies.Increased use of green technologies to trap and remove nutrients at South Baltic lagoon beaches by local communities and stakeholders which have not yet become market-driven or integrated into governmental policies.The main output of the Seed Money will be project concept paper of the future project which will be an introduction of innovative small-scale green technologies to trap and remove nutrients at South Baltic lagoon beaches in order to decrease the pollution discharges to the Baltic Sea and to strengthen the environmental sustainability of lagoon communities. The main envisaged result of the future project is an increased use of innovative small-scale green technologies to trap and remove nutrients at South Baltic lagoon beaches by local communities and private stakeholders. This will be a direct environmental benefit from cross-border cooperation among the public and private lagoon stakeholders, research institutes following the ‘Triple Helix’ principle. The specific objective and its related result will be achieved by four steps: stocktaking of the best available green technologies for trapping and removing nutrients from the shallow lagoon waters adjacent to the beaches that can be suitable for bathing; building a network of communities and stakeholders interested to test the green technologies of nutrient trapping and removal in practice; implementation of the living barriers at selected pilot sites; transfer of acquired knowledge and dissemination of good practices to other South Baltic lagoon communities and beyond. The main output of the future Living Lagoons project is an introduction of new innovative and economically sustainable small-scale green technologies which have not yet become market-driven or integrated into governmental policies.