WSSP

Aerial view of a river in rural landscape

The Baltic Sea and its surrounding areas are exposed to pollution from rural and urban catchment areas. The pollution can contain harmful nutrient inflows, hazardous substances, and pathogens. Whereas point pollution sources are often easy to identify and address, diffuse pollution from e.g. urban and agricultural areas is less obvious and therefore harder to identify and mitigate.

The project promotes a practical and resource-wise Watershed Safety Plan (WSSP) operational model that enables municipalities, water utilities and other relevant actors to reduce the amount of diffuse pollution from reaching the Baltic Sea. The goal is to create a generally applicable watershed-based water management model that improves water quality and residents’ well-being in the central Baltic Sea region.

Expected results

To ensure a generally applicable model, the WSSP operational model is piloted in densely built areas as well as sparsely populated agricultural and forestry areas in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Sweden. Furthermore, the model is co-developed in close cooperation with its end users.

Each pilot area is surveyed in detail with modern technologies such as Geological Information System (GIS) mapping tools and water monitoring methods to identify risk areas. Sustainable water protection activities are targeted and implemented at these risk areas to reduce diffuse pollution resource-wisely and effectively.

The WSSP operational model has been launched and piloted in Finland, but this is the first time when such an applicable watershed-based water management model is adapted at this scale for municipalities and water utilities and similar actors in the Central Baltic area.