Several tools and models to support and improve river basin management planning have been developed and tested in the Finnish Environment Institute. They can be used to aid in assessing the status of a waterbody and the management practices needed to achieve good ecological status in the waterbody. Models are also used for studying and monitoring the nutrient loading in rivers and lakes.
Models describe the most essential information affecting the nutrient cycle in the environment, transport of nutrients from soil to the watershed and retention in watersheds.
Assessing the present state and the goals
In river basin management planning, the first step is usually to assess the present state of the waterbody based on either observations or modelling. The next step is to find out how much nutrient loading should be reduced in the catchment area, so that the total nutrient concentration in the waterbody would be small enough for achieving good ecological status.
Choosing the cost-effective measures
Models and tools can be used also to assess the effect of different combinations of measures first to the loading and after that to the status of a waterbody. In this way, the most cost-effective measures can be identified. In the process, the costs of river basin management and benefits for recreational use from improving the water quality can be evaluated.
The linkages between the water management process and the models and tools used in SYKE are presented in the figure below.