Two new research projects to improve water management

Water is an important part of our environment, performing all kinds of ecological functions within our society. These functions are also called ecosystem services, including activities such as food production, flood protection, recreation and much more. Lakes play a major role in providing these ecosystem services. But the ecological status and water quality of these lakes is often still not good enough, and is further threatened by the effects of climate change.

Water4All

Two new projects at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) will look for solutions to this problem. These projects can start thanks to funding from European water security programme ‘Water4All’. This is a European programme that finances international cooperation projects. In the Netherlands, this programme is implemented by NWO, which together with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature, and the European Commission has allocated a total of 1.25 million euros to four programmes aimed at better integration of aquatic ecosystem services in water management.

EcoTwin

With the EcoTwin project, NIOO researcher Lisette de Senerpont Domis will work on better integration of ecosystem services for water management. This research uses Digital Twins to develop improved management to make lakes resilient to threats caused by climate change. This will help maintain the necessary ecosystem services supplied by lakes in the future.

Lisette de Senerpont Domis is an aquatic ecologist at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW). She is interested in how different components of human-induced global changes, such as climate change, eutrophication, and habitat fragmentation affect species interactions. Over the years, stimulated by the urgency of the ecology crisis this planet is facing, she became more and more interested in making ecological principles operational for aquatic ecosystem management and conservation.

PLURALAKES 

In collaboration with Radboud University and international partners, researcher Sven Teurlincx will use the PLURALAKES project to look for future scenarios for our lakes. Many times, the ecological status of lakes is worse than it should be. To arrive at desired future visions, NIOO and Radboud are developing target seeking models for ecological water quality and biodiversity.

Sven Teurlincx is an aquatic ecologist with a strong interest in stakeholder involvement. Sven has worked on many projects where he tries to balance the desire of human use of water bodies with ecological quality of water systems in terms of biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services.