Abstract
By the 21st century it has become clear that humanity cannot keep up its current way of life, population growth and the ever-expanding machine of industry has the environment under such immense pressure, that it cannot regenerate fast enough anymore. The faster we start fixing the already inflicted damage, the greater help we can provide for the environment to heal.
The aim of the project is the development of “SmartLAKE”, a water rehabilitation method with a bioremediation floating island, with the help of which, regional development projects which would otherwise not be profitable or have a smaller than desired profit margins can be made financially attractive. Income creation capabilities can grow, the users of the method can have access to new and wider range of water related regional development possibilities, while lowering the financial risk of said projects. It is common, for both domestic and international small watercourses, that in the dry season, due to the low level of natural subsurface runoff, large portion of the base yield is cleaned or possibly even uncleaned sewer water. Lakes, reservoirs, and fishpond located under such water sources are plagued by water quality issues due to high pollutant load and insufficient dilution. Achieving a good quality of water, in the long run, for such water bodies can only be accomplished by an integrated intervention, that is affecting the whole catchment area. In the near future the quality of these waters can only be mended by local interventions. The improving water purity brings into foreground other possibilities of lake use and improvement also starts a self-inflicting process, working as a catalyst for the water body’s natural regeneration. The technology that is to be developed is meant to serve this first step, while the conceptual part of the method is built to sustain the results of it. The aim of the technology is local water quality improvement, with integrated innovative methods, which can create acceptable conditions until a large-scale solution is implemented, be it decades from now.
With the help of this project several areas can come back into consideration for tourism or residential area development, which due to high pollution, have been neglected for such purposes. The project allows for lakes and water reservoirs to be monitored in real time regarding their quality. The monitoring system shows what causes the problems in a given lake, while, thanks to the constant inspection, can predict future changes.
Hungary