Summer fair of solutions and projects

The BSR WATER conference on 9–10 June opened the summer of 2021 with the celebration of water excellence in the Baltic Sea Region, particularly in the Gdansk Bay.

The conference had to take place online, of course, but its spatial direction nevertheless paid tribute to the original plans of organising it in Gdansk. The summer conference focused on the methods, approaches and solutions developed in the city of Gdansk through the cooperation with different local stakeholders and the participation in many transnational projects funded within Interreg Programmes. The conference attracted over 60 participants.

The city of Gdansk is indeed a forerunner in the development of smart water infrastructure and adaptation of the city to the climate change. This reason for selecting the location was supported by the partnership: Gdansk University of Technology, leading the project Reviving Baltic Resilience, is a partner of BSR WATER, bringing to the platform table the knowledge on reducing the influx of pollutants to the Baltic Sea. With the RBR project finishing in June 2021, its final conference was held on the first day of the BSR WATER conference.

Achievements of the Reviving Baltic Resilience project

The RBR project focused on the range of solutions for reducing the pollution to the Baltic Sea from different sources. During the first day of the conference, the project was extensively introduced by its partners. With Jan Hupka and Andzej Rogala opening up the project’s proactive strategy to environmental solutions, four pilots that followed brought a wide range of approaches to reducing the pollutants load. The pilots focused on:

• Reducing emission from diesel engine powered by dimethyl ether
• Treating leachate from landfills using carbon filters
• Phytoremediation of oily soils
• Limiting pollution, especially of plastics, on beaches to reduce their emission to the Baltic Sea

The introduction of technical designs, research and testing were concluded with the view into the future: the RBR Green Technologies Cluster, as one of the project outputs, plans for the networking between different stakeholders even after the project’s end.

Best practices and solutions from the City of Gdańsk

The second day of the conference was moderated by Agnieszka Ilola (UBC SCC) and Magdalena Gajewska (GUT). It was opened with the regional context: HELCOM regional recommendation on proper management of storm water presented by Dmitry Frank-Kamenetsky, Professional Secretary of HELCOM PRESSURE Group. The update of the recommendation 23/5 has been done with a significant input from the BSR WATER platform, and the revised document was adopted at the HELCOM HOD meeting 60-2021, to replace the recommendation from the year 2002.

The first session of the day focused on practical solutions for the development of smart blue-green infrastructure, i.e. nature-based solutions. Gdanskie Wody, the Gdansk company providing the water services, opened it with the extensive introduction into the local strategies for adapting the urban infrastructure to the climate change.

The participants then were taken to the virtual tours around different locations in Gdansk where such solutions were implemented.

Further during the session, two transnational projects and their outputs were presented: NOAH, with its Extreme Weather Layer tool for the flood prevention, and WISA, with the overview of the pollution by stormwater from ports and the technologies for its reduction.

The second session opened up the emerging pollutants in waters and best practices for addressing them. The MORPHEUS project compiled advanced technologies to remove pharmaceuticals from the wastewater stream and roadmaps for WWTPs. NonHazCity project, which implemented upstream measures for reducing hazardous substances, also engaged citizens in this process and showed inspiring examples of the citizen involvement practices. FanpLESSticSea project, which has a pilot for microplastics removal, introduced the stages of its construction and testing. And the CONTRA project brought the topic of beach wrack, with two possible solutions for cleaning and treating it.

To allow the uptake of best available technologies in the region, the Baltic Smart Water Hub portal brings them together – some of the presented cases are already available there!