Advancements in Sustainable Stormwater Management – Insights from the MUSTBE Seminar in Söderhamn
The MUSTBE project organized its 4th international cross-border event, this time in Söderhamn! The event focused on showcasing the project progress and expertise related to stormwater treatment and management as well as nature-based solutions.
Söderhamn Municipality’s project manager, Linda Hillberg, opened the event by welcoming both in-person and online attendees to CFL in Söderhamn. With over 40 participants from various target groups, the MUSTBE seminar had a strong audience for its fourth cross-border event.
MUSTBE’s Lead Project Manager, Siim Reinla from Viimsi Municipality, continued by briefly presenting the project. Reinla also summed up the lessons learned so far: plans change, planning of novel solutions takes time, technical design of novel solutions is also difficult for engineering companies, and procurement of novel solutions is often difficult to budget. However, the future looks promising:
– This summer will be a summer of construction for many partners, and in the autumn, we can start monitoring the pilot sites, Reinla stated.
Preparing and designing the Söderhamn pilot sites
Maria Svensson, project developer from Söderhamn Municipality, went over the previous three stormwater projects completed in Söderhamn. The MUSTBE project had a solid foundation to build on in the area, as a lot of technical work and measurement had already been done in the previous projects. This was also noted by Tallinn University of Technology’s Dr. Nils Kändler, who presented the Söderhamn pilot sites’ preparatory work and multi-benefit analysis. In his presentation, Dr. Kändler highlighted the importance of geospatial data, surveys and drainage modelling in planning and designing NBS, as well as the multidimensional approach of MUSTBE pilot sites that not only consider water quality and quantity, but also limitations in public space, transportation, interest of developers and already functioning ecosystems, such as streams.
Jakob Lindvall from Norconsult joined the seminar online. He has been involved in the Söderhamn pilot sites since last autumn, with a primary focus on Broberg. Lindvall presented the sensor technology and flood mitigation strategies implemented in Broberg pilot site along with several technical and design insights. His presentation sparked discussion and questions especially regarding sensor performance and technical details of the Söderhamn pilots.
From AFRY, team leader Ida Gomez Bergström and stormwater consultant Sophia Flybring discussed stormwater management solutions from the consultants’ perspective. They walked through the planning process and shared examples and lessons learned when dealing with high groundwater levels in coastal areas and challenges related to sulfidic clay.
Monitoring of the solutions is the key to learning
Aleksi Siirtola from City of Pori presented preliminary results from the first two MUSTBE pilot sites already constructed in Pori, Finland. Monitoring of the Pori pilot sites has started, and both solutions were tested and proven effective during heavy snowmelt and rainfall last November. Seminar attendees were also shown the first data visualisations from the sites.
Lastly, Jurijs Kondratenko from Riga Technical University, Latvia, talked about monitoring and measuring of NBS pilot sites. Kondratenko presented the monitoring and measuring needs for all the pilot sites. Depending on the site and its characteristics, parameters include, for example, pH, nutrients, hazardous substances, plastics, toxins, temperature, turbidity, flow, oil products, nitrogen, water level, and electrical conductivity. Monitoring will continue after the MUSTBE project ends, as Kondratenko noted:
– The first five years after construction are for understanding how the techniques work and what lessons we learn. Based on that, we’ll take the next steps. Monitoring should not be done for monitoring’s sake, but to actually learn something from the solutions.
With an inspiring and informative seminar concluded, the MUSTBE project team would like to thank all presenters and attendees. Presentations of the event will be shared soon. The next MUSTBE cross-border event will take place in Riga in the autumn; more information will be published on the MUSTBE Central Baltic website so stay tuned!
Writers and editors: Veera Iisakkala and Meri-Maaria Salo. Photos: Meri-Maaria Salo and Linda Hillberg.
