Last week, on October 14th and 15th, in the BIGDATA4RIVERS project the Study visit and Exchange of Experience events took place in Lithuania. The events were organized virtually by Institute of Environmental Engineering of Kaunas University of Technology. The main reason was the site visit to Lithuania by the members of the project and their partners, and the Exchange of Experiences in the field of the Water resources management between the member countries of the consortium.
On the first day, the representative of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Ministry of Environment, head of department Mr. Gintautas Sabas made the presentation on the Cadastre of rivers, lakes and ponds of the Republic of Lithuania. A very interesting presentation was made on the Good practices “Floating island for nutrient removal in Lithuania” by professor Artūras Razinkovas-Baziukas from Klaipeda University and “Adjustment of MesoHABSIM model for evaluation of ecological conditions in the Lithuanian rivers” by senior researcher Vytautas Akstinas from Laboratory of Hydrology, Lithuanian Energy Institute. The Study visits on the Innovative solutions in wastewater treatment: “Pilot testing of activated carbon for removal of pharmaceuticals and other emerging substances” and “Innovative solutions in stormwater management - Ecological adapted stormwater investments in Kretinga” were presented by technologist of the JSC “Kretingos Vandenys”. As well the Good practice on GIS for water resource management in JSC ”Kaunas Vandenys” were briefly presented by the event moderator professor Jolanta Dvarioniene from Kaunas University of Technology.
On the second day, very interesting experiences in the field of water resources management were shared by project partners and their stakeholders. The Stormwater management practices was presented by Sara Lönnerud from Unit for water, Department of Environment and Nature, County Administrative Board from Sweden. Very interesting presentation about the monitoring in the Asopos River Basin: monitoring of emerging contaminants through the seasons was presented by PhD candidate Varvara Nikolopoulou from Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Athens from Greece. Very promising presentation on Promoting water quality through nature-bases solutions: the role of floating islands with vegetation was presented by professor Ana Cristina Rodrigues from Higher Agricultural School - Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo in Portugal. The importance of Nature Based Solutions, at a landscape level, to address climate change was presented by professor Edna Cabecinha and professor Simone Varandas, from UTAD - University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro in Portugal.
At the end of the event our guests Ms. Aurélie Lecanu representing SIBA (Intermunicipality of Arcachon Bay) - lead of the REMPAR project from France and Mr. Serge Gomes da Silva made a Presentation on a Network of monitoring and expertise on micropollutants, macro-pollutants and micro-organisms in the waters of the Arcachon bay and its tributaries. Afterwards the guestspresented their objectives and opportunities for cooperation of this network and invited project partners for cooperation.
As the overall objective of the project is to exchange experiences and good practices between partners in the field of the efficiency of the water systems, hope, that the event contributed to the process to adapt those good practices and apply the lessons learnt to each partner reality through the development of individual action plans and to promote their application through the partners’ policy instruments.
