Newsletter

NEWSLETTER 5 - June 2007:
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On 14-15 May 2007 the symposium was held in Rovaniemi, Finland, close to the Arctic Circle. Altogether there were 85 participants from 14 different European countries including river basin managers, environmental and spatial planners, consultants, researchers, and authorities. - ...

On 5 April 2007, a conference was organised by Lodz Technical University as part of the Watersketch project. The conference was held in the Lodz Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences building. It was organised under the patronage of Stanis?aw Olas, President of the Lodz Region. - ...

On March 21-23 2007, the VIII International Environmental Forum "Baltic Sea Day" took place in St. Petersburg. The basic themes were mainly the Baltic Action Plan and the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in transboundary waters, the Russian-Finnish-Estonian cooperation in the Gulf of Finland, as well as the North-European Gas Pipeline construction project in the Baltic Sea. - ...

The workshop took place in Klaip?da, Lithuania on 7 June 2007 and was intended to present stakeholder attitudes towards the Water Framework Directive (WFD), visions of the Directive?s implementation, and aspects of public participation in water resource management. The elaboration of the common position on extensive public and stakeholder involvement in river basin management was a goal of the workshop. - ...

Seppo, you have been in charge of the overall coordination of the Watersketch project. What was the main aim of the project and did you succeed? - ...

NEWSLETTER 4 - December 2006:
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The International Seminar on Collaborative Planning of Natural Resources Management was held in the Finnish Environment Institute in Helsinki on September 25 - 26, 2006. The planning of use and management of natural resources and environment should be carried out in collaboration with all stakeholders and interested parties. In addition to the term collaborative planning, terms such as public involvement and interactive or participatory planning, can be used meaning roughly the same thing. The main goals of the seminar were to promote the methods of collaborative planning and to disseminate related information in the domains of forest planning, integrated river basin planning and settlement planning. - ...

The river Minija, the right tributary of the Atmata, is the eighth longest river in Lithuania, measuring approx. 200 km. Its whole basin is located in Lithuanian territory occupying an area of almost 3000 km2. The case study of the river Minija reveals a number of problems related to the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). Partners visited the area in October 2006 to better understand the main pressures on this watercourse. - ...

The purpose of the Toolbox is to offer general information and practical tools and methods for sustainable river basin planning and management. Main target groups are environmental and spatial planners and authorities, but it also offers practical and interesting information for any visitor. The Toolbox supports the goals and best practices set up by the EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) and by European spatial planning recommendations and strategies. The first version will be up and running in December 2006 at: toolbox.watersketch.net - ...

Web-HIPRE (HIerarchical PREference analysis on the World Wide Web) is a software working via the internet. It utilises multicriteria decision analysis, which provides a transparent way to structure problems and support the elicitation of preferences in participatory decision making. Aim of the approach is to promote planners? and stakeholders? learning processes. - ...

NEWSLETTER 3 - May 2006:
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Do we need a specific spatial plan for waters? April 4-5 2006: Watersketch arranged a two-day dissemination seminar, which was held in Yyteri spa hotel, in the city of Pori, Finland. Aim of the seminar was to tell public as well experts of the results of the Watersketch project and other current issues concerning water protection and spatial planning. ...

Hamburg is located at the tidally influenced stretch of the Lower Elbe River. With regard to the volume of trade and employment numbers, Hamburg is Germanys third largest industrial area with a main focus on mobile industry, precision engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical production, metal industry and oil processing industry. The harbour is the main attraction of Hamburg and its oldest major employer. 125.000 jobs are directly or indirectly related to the harbour, which is about 12 % of the total employment in Hamburg. With an area of 74.4 km2 the harbour takes up about 10% of the city?s space. About 50% of the water fields in Hamburg belong to the harbour area. ...

Spring 2006: First tool training session for Watersketch partners was held in Helsinki (Finland), 1-3 February, with 24 participants from 11 organisations. Several tools were demonstrated and first trials with national data were done. At the project meeting in Tune (Denmark), 30-31 March, the present technical structure of the toolbox was described. ...

NEWSLETTER 2 - December 2005:
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After half of the project time, a public mid-term workshop took place in Hamburg, Germany, on 2nd November 2005. "Human pressures on watercourses of Baltic Sea Region - how to couple spatial planning and sustainable development" Watersketch invited authorities in response for river basin management and spatial planning at national, regional and local level, as well as researchers dealing with the topic and NGOs interested in contribution of planning. ...

How to combine directives and public needs - September 2005: Meeting on directives and conventions (WP1) and on tools and principles (WP3) was held in Aalborg, Denmark. Do you know a place, where regional beer is cultivated in aquaculture plants? Where seals are swimming beside researchers and divers? ...

"Watersketch is part-financed by the European Union" What does that mean to the project and to the dissemination of results? On a two-day-seminar (Berlin, 24-25 November 2005) of the BSR INTERREG III B Joint Secretariat, Watersketch was informed about different communication strategies ...

- In June 2005, the status quo of the Watersketch case studies (WP 2) was presented at the Technical University of Lodz. The progress was reported for each case. Focus of this meeting was the Polish case study of the Jeziorsko water reservoir. An intensive study tour completed the theoretical background very clearly. ...

NEWSLETTER 1 - April 2005:
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- Finnish Scientists present Studies on the Kainuu Region - Forests are very important for Finnish economy. There are 26 million hectares of forests, which cover 86 % of the Finnish land area. Most of Finnish forests, 62 %, are owned by altogether 400,000 private citizens. Private enterprises own 9 % and the state of Finland 25 % of total forest area.

- The Case Study of River Kokemäenjoki - The coastal northwest corner of the city of Pori is well known for its nature, landscape and recreational use. In these respects the area is nationally and even internationally significant. There are also substantial industrial activities in the area, and two harbours. The cultural heritage is seen as rich. The case study of River Kokemäenjoki deals with this area of land and water. Other name for this case study is the Meri-Pori scenarios project. ...

- Peat Production as an Example in North Ostrobothnia - New Tools - Eutrophication caused by nutrient pollution and siltation of the river bed due to loading of suspended solids (SS) are the most signifi-cant environmental problems in most Finnish rivers today. The nutrient and SS loading originates mainly from agriculture and for-estry, but also from peat production. Many times there are still needs to use new land areas for these anthropogenic purposes or to use the older areas more effectively. In the peat production sub-study the focus is set to the question, how this can be done without deteriorating the status of the river channels for the river biota and for the recreational purposes that are dependent on good water quality. ...

- Empirical Modelling of the Environmental Conditions of Limfjorden - The aquatic environment of Limfjorden is damaged by nutrient loading, but how much has the emissions to be reduced to ensure that the environmental objectives of the fjord are met? ...