Project Overview
The Norrström drainage basin is a lowland coastal basin including the capital Stockholm: it is the most densely populated region of Sweden with more than 1,5 million people. | The basin consists of 4% built-up areas, 36% agricultural and open land, 49% forest, 1,5% wetlands and 9,5% inland waters. Lake Mälaren (fig.1) is the only water supply for Stockholm. | The Baltic Sea and the Stockholm archipelago are impacted ecosytems.
Conserve Process
YES
Enhance Process
YES
Apply Complementary
YES
Ecosystem Services
Provisioning
- Provisioning Services are ecosystem services that describe the material or energy outputs from ecosystems. They include food, water and other resources.
- Food: Ecosystems provide the conditions for growing food. Food comes principally from managed agro-ecosystems but marine and freshwater systems or forests also provide food for human consumption. Wild foods from forests are often underestimated.
- Fresh water: Ecosystems play a vital role in the global hydrological cycle, as they regulate the flow and purification of water. Vegetation and forests influence the quantity of water available locally.
Regulating
- Regulating Services are the services that ecosystems provide by acting as regulators eg. regulating the quality of air and soil or by providing flood and disease control.
- Local climate and air quality: Trees provide shade whilst forests influence rainfall and water availability both locally and regionally. Trees or other plants also play an important role in regulating air quality by removing pollutants from the atmosphere.
- Waste-water treatment: Ecosystems such as wetlands filter both human and animal waste and act as a natural buffer to the surrounding environment. Through the biological activity of microorganisms in the soil, most waste is broken down. Thereby pathogens (disease causing microbes) are eliminated, and the level of nutrients and pollution is reduced.
- Pollination: Insects and wind pollinate plants and trees which is essential for the development of fruits, vegetables and seeds. Animal pollination is an ecosystem service mainly provided by insects but also by some birds and bats. Some 87 out of the 115 leading global food crops depend upon animal pollination including important cash crops such as cocoa and coffee (Klein et al. 2007).
Habitat / Supporting
- Ecosystem services "that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services". These include services such as nutrient recycling, primary production and soil formation.
- Habitats for species: Habitats provide everything that an individual plant or animal needs to survive: food; water; and shelter. Each ecosystem provides different habitats that can be essential for a species’ lifecycle. Migratory species including birds, fish, mammals and insects all depend upon different ecosystems during their movements.
Cultural
- Cultural Services corresponds nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences.
- Recreation and mental and physical health: Walking and playing sports in green space is not only a good form of physical exercise but also lets people relax. The role that green space plays in maintaining mental and physical health is increasingly being recognized, despite difficulties of measurement.
- Tourism: Ecosystems and biodiversity play an important role for many kinds of tourism which in turn provides considerable economic benefits and is a vital source of income for many countries. In 2008 global earnings from tourism summed up to US$ 944 billion. Cultural and eco-tourism can also educate people about the importance of biological diversity.
- Aesthetic appreciation and inspiration for culture, art and design: Language, knowledge and the natural environment have been intimately related throughout human history. Biodiversity, ecosystems and natural landscapes have been the source of inspiration for much of our art, culture and increasingly for science.
- Spiritual experience and sense of place: In many parts of the world natural features such as specific forests, caves or mountains are considered sacred or have a religious meaning. Nature is a common element of all major religions and traditional knowledge, and associated custos are important for creating a sense of belonging.
Major Issues
The relatively heavy population, agriculture and industry
The relatively heavy population, agriculture and industry in the basin put large eutrophication and pollution pressures on its inland and coastal waters
Presence of contaminated land
Presence of contaminated land
EH Engineering Solutions
Management analysis regarding nutrient loading to inland
Management analysis regarding nutrient loading to inland and coastal water ecosystems, including focus on regulating ecosystem services of wetlands (fig.2)
Assessment of drivers and ecohydrological effects of
Assessment of drivers and ecohydrological effects of hydro-climatic and land-use changes through time
Observation-based and model quantification and interpretation of
Observation-based and model quantification and interpretation of water flow and nutrient transport processes, drivers, impacts and changes
Project Activities
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Quantitative assessment and projection of ecohydrological changes and processes under multiple pressures of hydro-climatic and land-use changes
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Academic research and societal applications, channelled through the strategic Stockholm University program Ekoklim
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Development of models and scenario projections of hydro-climatic and land-use changes and their ecohydrological impacts – for the basin itself and as node in worldwide catchment network
Expected Outcomes
Quantification and projection of ecohydrological change – understanding the role of and responses to various change drivers
Latest Results
Large nutrient pool legacy of past inputs is a major current diffuse source of excess nutrients to surface and coastal water ecosystems. | Negligible large-scale nutrient retention by wetlands – in spite of considerable retention in the small flow fraction through an individual | Human land- and water-use changes are major drivers of local to global hydro-climatic change ---- Locally within the basin, increased hydrological and agricultural drought risk, in spite of increased precipitation ---- Globally, breach of freshwater planetary boundary ---- Norrström basin developed to key pioneering study node in worldwide multi-catchment investigation network for long-term, past and future hydro-climatic change and its drivers and key uncertainties.