MARTINI - Understanding and predicting water quality for ecosystem-based management of Norwegian fjords, coastal waters and seas

Informations

Funding country

Norway

Acronym

-

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2018

End date

12/31/2022

Budget

1,005,525 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

The primary focus of MARTINI was the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The WFD was implemented into Norwegian law in 2007, referred to as Vannforskriften, and it aims to improve and protect the chemical and biological status of all Norwegian water bodies using ecosystem-based management. The environmental objective of the WFD is to achieve Good Ecological and Good Chemical Status within each of water bodies within a six-year period, i.e. by 2021 (coinciding with the final year of MARTINI). We chose to work on the Oslofjord and the Skagerrak regions, which have densely populated catchment areas, and are under pressure from various human activities, such as eutrophication, contaminants, non-indigenous species and marine litter. In addition, the region is experiencing effects of climate change, such as ocean warming and species displacements, ocean acidification and changes in river runoff from land. Ecosystem-based management involves, by necessity, using all information available to provide knowledge for qualified decision making. Our intention was that through this project and through potential future geographical expansions of the MARTINI concept, we will be able to provide up-to-date knowledge co-produced with the users, to aid decision-making in water management of Norwegian fjords, coasts and seas - upon which the Norwegian economy so strongly depends and along which three quarters of the Norwegian population resides - as these waters face unprecedented anthropogenic pressures. Our vision was to provide a tool that could be used to create a joint understanding of the situation (in the vocabulary of the military: a war room. We took as a starting point the web portal that is normally used by Norwegian water managers to house relevant information (the Vann-Nett portal) and developed it further, based on the scientific advances in the project, including the new MARTINI800 biogeochemical model, the hindcast data archive, and the tools for assessing state, fate and mitigation possibilities for less-than-good water quality. Contrary to terrestrial water bodies, the marine water bodies have no clear geographical boundaries, so it was essential to include ocean circulation in order to make those assessments. The developments of MARTINI towards aiding managers with respect to the Water Framework Directive has been discussed repeatedly with users, both at the beginning of the project, but most importantly in the final months (when all the technical advances had materialized). In interviews, the users have unanimously applauded the tools we have developed and they see the potential value the tool have for water management. We, the scientists of the MARTINI project, see now that co-creating information with environmental managers is a much slower process than what can be done within the framework of a four-year project; it requires time, patience, trust and persistence. Though the project is formally finished we will arrange a user seminar at the Miljødirektoratet in late summer. We are determined to continue on the path we have begun, and we already see many spin-off activities from MARTINI.