The Nordic Environmental Research Programme The Gulf of Riga Project Information documents More information

The Nordic Environmental Research Programme

With the aim of further promoting environmental research in the Nordic countries, the Nordic Council of Ministers in 1991 initiated a five-year Nordic Environmental Research Programme. It was concentrated on climate research, co-operation on environmental research in the Baltic Sea region, and research in the socio-economic and political conditions requried to implement environment policies. It supported project-based work, training for researchers and participation by the Nordic countries in international research programmes.

The Nordic Environmental Research Programme was established in 1991 and implemented over the period 1993-97. It had three theme areas:

• Environmental Research in the Baltic Sea Region;
• Climate Change Research;
• Social Science Research on Environmental Policy Issues.

Important objectives were to support research that would:

• be of use to all the Nordic countries and provide added value compared with national research;
• extend cooperation via targeted projects, with a view to exerting a major influence on environmental policy, research in the Nordic countries, and the Nordic contribution to broader international research cooperation;
• strengthen advanced studies, research training and researcher mobility.

The Nordic Council of Ministers allocated a total of DKK 133 million to the programme, and a corresponding sum has been made available from national sources. Special funds were contributed by the Nordic Academy for Advanced Study (NorFA), for 'educational aspects, with the aim of strengthening the scientific base for the recruitment of new researchers'. In addition, mobility awards, scholarships and network grants have been available within the programme.

The Gulf of Riga Project

The financial resources allocated to the theme area Environmental Research in the Baltic Sea Region were concentrated on a geographically limited area, and the need to focus on research into processes of importance for the exchange and balance between land and sea of toxic substances and nutrients was emphasized.

The Gulf of Riga and its drainage basin in Estonia and Latvia was chosen, and this theme area is consequently referred to as the Gulf of Riga Project.

To learn more about large-scale processes, more knowledge was needed concerning the exchange systems and processes linking land, water and the atmosphere. It was also important to obtain an overall view of the environmental status of - and important processes (inputs, transport, distribution and impacts) involving - nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and silicon, as well as toxic substances such as persistent organic compounds and heavy metals. Nutrient budget estimates and modelling were to be used as tools to test hypotheses concerning which sources and substances have the greatest impacts on the eutrophication process. Research relating to toxic substances was to include monitoring of certain substances and the processes regulating their concentrations and distribution patterns within the Gulf of Riga and exchanges with other parts of the Baltic Sea.

There was also a need for a better understanding of the pressures various ecosystems are able to tolerate (their carrying capacity) and of their ability to withstand different kinds of pressure (their resilience). In this context, the pressures in question are the impacts of the use and development of land and coastal areas in the Baltic region.

The overall goals of the Gulf of Riga Project were to:

• shed light on and clarify the functioning and status of the Gulf of Riga ecosystem;
• find out more about the environmental problems of the Gulf and its drainage area, particularly the degree of eutrophication and the situation as regards toxic pollutants;
• learn more about the factors governing the development of the environmental status of the Gulf, including the influence of its drainage basin;
• clarify how the Gulf of Riga affects other parts of the Baltic Sea, and vice versa;
• elaborate an overall ecological model for the Gulf of Riga; and
• be able to use the knowledge acquired as a basis for measures to protect the aquatic environment of the Gulf of Riga area.

The project is believed to have produced the best available comprehensive ecosystem study to date on a specific area of the Baltic Sea region. It was divided into six major sub-projects (1-6) and one separate project (7):

1. Drainage Basin and Load to the Gulf of Riga;
2. Pelagic Eutrophication and Sedimentation;
3. Sediment and Benthos of the Gulf of Riga - Storage and Processes;
4. Water Exchange, Nutrients, Hydrography and Database;
5. Budgets of Persistent Pollutants and Heavy Metals in the Gulf of Riga;
6. Production and Transformation of Nutrients in the Littoral Zone of the Gulf of Riga.
7. Comparison of heavy metals and nutrient fluxes in the Gulf of Riga and the Curonian Lagoon.

The focus on the Gulf of Riga and its surroundings has also provided good opportunities for Nordic researchers to work in close collaboration with colleagues from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia/Kaliningrad region (Curonian Lagoon). Altogether, well over 130 scientists and research students from some 50 research institutes in the countries involved - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia and Sweden - have participated in the project.

Over the period 1993-97, the Gulf of Riga Project received total funding of about DKK 35 million from the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Gulf of Riga Project information An information brochure was produced in October 1999 by the Project Secretariat and the Nordic Council of Ministers. It is based on the final report from the project and provides, in a popular-science presentation, a summary of the research results and conclusions drawn from these results. The brochure can be ordered in hard copy from the Nordic Council of Ministers and from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (see below). It is also available as a pdf file, but not for general publication. A brief information leaflet was produced in 1996 by the Project Secretariat and the Nordic Council of Ministers. Some of the interim research results were presented, and some basic information about the Gulf of Riga Project.

More information

Final report

Copies can be ordered from the Nordic Council of Ministers

• Nordic Environmental Research Programme for 1993-1997: Final Report and Self-Evaluation. TemaNord Environment. TemaNord 1999:548. 260 pp. Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen.
• Nordiska Miljöforskningsprogrammet 1993­1997. Slutrapport och egenutvärdering. TemaNord Environment. TemaNord 1999:531. 164 s. Nordiska Ministerrådet, Köpenhamn.

Other reports

For copies, please contact the Programme Secretariat

• The Gulf of Riga Project. Symposium in Jurmala, Latvia, 10-14 May, 1998. Abstracts. List of participants. 122 pp. Naturvårdsverket (Swedish Environment Protection Agency) and Nordic Council of Ministers.
• The Gulf of Riga Projects. Leaflet (1996) about initial results.

An AMBIO Special Issue will also be published in 2000.

CD-ROM

• NMR Gulf of Riga Project. Produced by SMHI and partner institutions. Scientific results of the "Water Exchange, Nutrients, Hydrography and Database" subproject, some general info about the Gulf of Riga, and a database of sampled ADCP and CTD data.

Web sites

• SMHI (www.smhi.se/sgn0106/if/oceanografi/gor_summary.html)
• Stockholm university (http://data.ecology.su.se/models/GOR.htm)
• Web sites of research institutions participating in the Gulf of Riga Project

Programme secretariat:

Ingrid Jansson
Swedish Environment Protection Agency
SE- 106 48 Stockholm
Sweden

Tel: +46- 8 698 15 63.
Fax: +46- 8 698 16 62.
E-mail: ingrid.jansson@environ.se
Web site: www.environ.se