MUSTBE

Multidimensional storm water treatment in urban areas for cleaner Baltic Sea

Although countries around the Baltic Sea are aware and have been working on reducing emissions of nutrients, hazardous substances, several priority hazardous substances and specific pollutants are still released to the environment through urban storm water systems.

By developing novel multi-benefit storm water management systems, the Interreg MUSTBE project aims at improving the condition of the Baltic Sea by treating storm water that reaches the sea. Within the project, the eight project partners aim to combine nature-based storm water solutions with digital solutions to maximize storm water treatment efficacy and municipalities capacity to monitor the actual quality of the storm water.

Altogether seven pilot sites will be set up in four countries (Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Sweden). Cross-border co-operation will not only enable the development of the necessary technological innovation that is in focus within visioned storm water solutions but also ensure replication of the technological innovation on international level.

Interreg MUSTBE will result in new innovative multi-benefit storm water systems that will combine storm water treatment, storm water exploitation, and online monitoring of water quality. Developed multi-benefit smart NBS’s are expected to deliver pollutant removal efficiencies of at least 60% for suspended solids, 30% for total nitrogen, 60% for pathogens, 50% for oil products, 40% for metals. Therefore, project is expected to improve condition of the Baltic Sea. It is envisioned that MUSTBE will also have a more strategical impact by disseminating novel technological solutions created within the project.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

To tackle the common cross-border challenge, the MUSTBE project has been set up to:

  • Develop digital and technical solutions for storm water planning, and
  • Disseminate information for stakeholders around the Baltic Sea on the ways how to improve the efficiency of the urban storm water treatment related to environmentally hazardous substances.

PROJECT STEPS

  • Analysis of and design for construction of smart multi-objective storm water treatment solutions at 7 pilot sites:
    • Two sites in Estonia (Tallinn and Viimsi).
    • Two sites in the city of Pori, Finland.
    • A site in Riga, Latvia.
    • Two sites in Sweden (Söderhamn).
  • Installations of the new solutions.
  • Monitoring of the pilot investments to verify the effectiveness of the deployed novel solutions and techniques.