VOIMAKAS

We produce the information needed for practical water management

Duration of the project

1.3.2024 – 31.12.2030

Source of funding

City of Turku, City of Kaarina, Municipality of Kemiönsaari, Municipality of Inko, Municipality of Mynämäki, City of Paimio, Municipality of Sauvo, City of Paraí, City of Salo, Municipality of Raasepori, City of Naantali

Total funding

204 589 €

Effective water management requires scientific evidence and an executive body. VOIMAKAS provides much more local, up-to-date, accurate and reliable information for targeting water management measures and monitoring their effectiveness. As an open consortium, VOIMAKAS brings together a wide range of actors from coastal and catchment regions, research organisations, NGOs and companies.

Effective water management requires scientific evidence and an executive body

The planning, implementation and impact assessment of measures for maintaining and improving the status of coastal waters (and for preventing their deterioration) are largely on the responsibility of municipalities and other minor stakeholders. At the operational scales of these actors, however, scientifically valid information on the quality of coastal waters (including their status and function) is scarce and hardly available in a readily applicable format. As the monitoring data produced by the national and regional public domain do not correspond to the actual scales of spatial and temporal environmental variation, it has also been highly challenging to form an overall picture of the status and functioning of the complex and dynamic coastal waters of SW Finland. Consequently, the same applies to identifying and quantifying local pressures influencing them, as well as to evaluating the effects of concrete management measures and actions. VOIMAKAS is a development and innovation platform aimed at the optimal utilization of water management resources. It responds to the lack of systematic planning and implementation of coastal management at the local level by generating a novel scientific basis for coordinating the targeting of concrete management actions and for assessing the efficiency of those actions in a harmonized and cost-efficient manner.

Extensive cooperation enables optimal utilization of water management resources

VOIMAKAS operates as an open consortium that brings together the coastal municipalities of the Archipelago Sea and the western Gulf of Finland and their catchment areas, several key expert organizations in coastal water research, as well as prominent NGOs and companies. All parties can act as both financers and beneficiaries. The undertakings of the consortium rely on the Coastrider concept (see project Coastrider) operated and maintained by the Water and Environmental Protection Research Group at the Turku University of Applied Sciences. Essentially, the concept is founded on collecting spatially and temporally representative empirical data on coastal water quality and greenhouse gas concentrations, as well as on interpreting these data in novel ways, directly responding to the information needs of concrete water management. The participating municipalities, NGO’s and companies thus gain reliable and accurate environmental information that is local, up-to-date and tailored to the individual applications of each participant. Correspondingly, the unprecedentedly comprehensive and representative information on coastal biogeochemistry enables the participating research organizations to form a substantially improved overall picture of the status and functioning of coastal waters, of the pressures affecting them, and of the actual impacts of the implemented management measures. Thus, the VOIMAKAS consortium is an open forum where novel environmental research and concrete management serve each other in a synergistic way.

Effective water management promotes ecologically, economically and socially sustainable development

The purpose of the consortium is to produce scientifically proven information to promote the sustainable development of coastal environments, especially on the local scale but also nationally and internationally. In addition to research organizations and authorities, the produced information is intended for NGOs, companies and individual citizens. All information produced by the consortium is public and freely available. Practical activities focus on the most significant environmental problems in coastal waters, that is, eutrophication and related phenomena (such as brownification, acidification and oxygen depletion) as well as their climate impacts. The overarching and ultimate aim of the consortium is to reduce organic, nutrient and particulate loading into coastal waters and thereby mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss through solutions that simultaneously promote the well-being of the environment and its use as a valuable natural resource.