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EcoAdvance European Project

What’s the best way to communicate the value of freshwater ecosystem restoration?

 As we begin to analyze the data from our recent survey on what makes freshwater ecosystem restoration initiatives prone to success, use of Ecosystem Services Concepts is clearly becoming the method of choice. 

90% of our respondents set goals in terms of Ecosystem Services. Another indicator of the increasing acceptance of this methodology is the recent Ecosystem Services Partnership Europe Conference which attracted over 500 participants to hashtag#Wageningen, Netherlands this past week. 

Our own University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) partner Lisa Waldenberger and others hosted a session on Freshwater Ecosystem Biodiversity and the impact of the pressures they face. DIscussions revolved around the need for transdisciplinary research to understand the various concurrent drivers at work and what they mean for the Ecosystem Services that can be delivered.

What happens to Constructed Wetlands(CWS) over time? 

Do they continue to effectively reduce pollutants; continue to be a cost-effective way to treat wastewater?

How do we know? 

Answering those critical questions is on the agenda for DALIA Danube Lighthouse Demonstrator 5 at the Begecka Jama Nature Park and Atila Bezdan and his team from the Department of Water Management at the University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Agriculture (Serbia). 
 Restored by a CWS that went operational in 2004, Begecka Jama has faced 20 years of climate change, increasing agricultural use of fertilizers and pesticides, and a shift from hunting to preservation that increased wildlife-human interactions. Begecka Jama Nature Park is a key ecotourism spot with significant biodiversity buttressed by improved habitats, breeding and spawning for 150 species of birds, 14 species of fish, 11 species of amphibians and 6 species of reptiles, despite the pressures from pollution and water variability. 

Some of the species are sensitive and while the Park itself is protected, outside its boundaries suffer from the discharge of untreated wastewater from surrounding settlements, chemicals from agriculture, illegal dumping, and leachate from a landfill.

An extensive program of CWS monitoring by Atila Bezdan, Jovana Bezdan (Dragincic) and Bosko Blagojevic (with certain analyses provided by @Jasna Grabic and colleagues from the water quality laboratory of the Department of Water Management) suggests that the CWS design and operation overall demonstrate effectiveness as a nature-based solution and has stood the test of time.

Of course, under different conditions results vary, though they have been fairly consistent. The results from 2012 to 2023 range between 95-80% for removal of suspended solids; 85-80% for reduction of BOD5; 65-45% for the efficiency of nitrogen compound removal; and 40-25% for the efficiency of total phosphorus removal. 

This work includes development of methods to monitor changes using drones and other advanced techniques and will anchor CWS as a proven long term nature based solution for many communities inside and outside the Danube Basin.