LIFE Project Number
LIFE12 ENV/FI/000597
Inception Report Covering the project activities from 01/08/2013 to 30/11/2013
Reporting Date
31/01/2014 Reduction of wastewater nitrogen load: demonstrations and modelling
N-SINK
Data Project
Project location Hämeenlinna, Finland
Project start date: 01/08/2013
Project end date: 31/07/2017
Total budget 1 188 260€
EC contribution: 594 130€
(%) of eligible costs 50%
Data Beneficiary
Name Beneficiary University of Helsinki, Lammi Biological Station
Contact person Mr Jussi Huotari
Postal address Pääjärventie 320, FI-16900 Lammi, FINLAND
Telephone +358 50 415 4405
Fax: +358 9 191 40746
E-mail [email protected]
Project Website http://www.helsinki.fi/lammi/NSINK/suomi.html
Inception report LIFE+ 2
1. Table of contents
1. Table of contents ........................................................................................................... 2
2. List of abbreviations ..................................................................................................... 3
3. Executive summary ....................................................................................................... 3
3.1. General progress .................................................................................................... 3
3.2. Assessment as to whether the project objectives and work plan are still viable ... 3
3.3 Problems encountered ............................................................................................ 3
4. Administrative part ....................................................................................................... 3
4.1. Description of project management ...................................................................... 3
4.2. Organigramme of the project team and the project management structure ........... 5
4.3. Partnership agreements status (incl. date of signature) and key content ............... 5
5. Technical part ............................................................................................................... 5
5.1. Actions .................................................................................................................. 6
5.1.1. Action A ...................................................................................................... 6
5.1.2. Action B ...................................................................................................... 7
5.1.3. Action C ...................................................................................................... 8
5.1.4. Action D ...................................................................................................... 8
5.1.5. Action E ....................................................................................................... 8
5.2. Availability of appropriate licences and authorisations ........................................ 8
5.3. Envisaged progress until next report ..................................................................... 9
6. Financial part .............................................................................................................. 11
6.1. Putting in place of the accounting system ........................................................... 11
6.2. Continued availability if co financing .................................................................. 11
6.3. Costs incurred ...................................................................................................... 11
7. Annexes ......................................................................................................................... 12
7.1. Partnership agreements ......................................................................................... 12
7.2. Deliverables ......................................................................................................... 12
7.3. Output indicators ................................................................................................. 12
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2. List of abbreviations
AF Academy of Finland
AVI Regional State Administrative Agency
CAS China Academy of Science
DPHYS Department of Physics, UHEL
ELY Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment
FIWA Finnish Water Utilities Association
HS-Vesi Hämeenlinnan Seudun Vesi Oy (WWTW)
LBS Lammi Biological Station, UHEL
MTK The Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners
MTT Agrifood Research Finland
SAB Project Steering and Advisory Board
SYKE Finnish Environment Institute
UHEL University of Helsinki
UJ University of Jyväskylä
WWTW Wastewater treatment work
3. Executive summary
3.1. General progress.
The beginning of the project progresses the most part as foreseen in the proposal:
mainly in the organization and coordination of the project as well as in collecting the
existing data and in planning the demonstrations. However, the late winter has
delayed our preparatory action (A1) a bit (see 3.3) but this should be no problem in
the long run. Otherwise, all the set milestones have been accomplished as planned
and everything has been going smoothly so far.
3.2. Assessment as to whether the project objectives and work plan are still viable.
The proposal is still valid and we foresee no obstacles preventing us to achieve the
goals of the project.
3.3. Problems encountered.
The measurements of the waste water discharge flow in lakes, which are needed for
the determination of the representative sampling points in Action A1, were supposed
to be done in early winter 2013–14. Due to especially warm winter and lack of
bearing ice-cover in monitoring sites even still in January, the measurements have
been delayed for several months. However, the delay should not affect the
implementation or accomplishment of the objectives of any of the actions. We expect
the ice cover to become strong enough enabling the measurements in February 2014.
4. Administrative part
4.1. Description of project management
The project consists of four different institutions with independent teams, which are
led by the team leaders responsible for implementing the action plans of the teams
(Figure 1). Lauri Arvola (Team leader of UHEL, LBS) is the project manager who
makes the final decisions in the project. Project Steering and Advisory Board (SAB)
will give opinion and expertise for the decision making of the project, as well as helps
in the dissemination of the results. SAB consists of team leaders and representatives
of the invited stakeholders. LBS has hired project coordinator, who ensures together
Inception report LIFE+ 4
with the project manager and team leaders that the coordination of the different action
plans will be optimally synchronized and that the goals of the action plans will be
achieved. Project manager, project coordinator and the team leaders meet at least
twice a year in the SAB meetings and whenever it is necessary. The manager and the
coordinator have offices next to each other ensuring constant communication.
Workshops have been and will be organized between the teams for the
synchronization of the Actions. Each partner team has been organized in their own
quarters to divide the tasks within the teams.
In addition to hiring the project coordinator, the coordinating beneficiary has
organized the project kick-off meeting (1 November 2013), invited the most
important stakeholders (Ministry of the Environment, FIWA, HS-Vesi, The Finnish
Forest and Park Service, Regional Council of Häme, MTK, ELY) to participate in the
SAB and organized the first meeting of the SAB (12 December 2013). The project
manager and the project coordinator also participated in LIFE+ kick-off meeting on
14 October 2013.
All partners and stakeholders participated in the project kick-off meeting. Each
stakeholder nominated a representative to the SAB. The representatives participated
in the first SAB meeting together with the team leaders and the project coordinator.
The WWTWs chosen for the demonstrations have delivered documents needed for
construction plan of perforated sewage outlet (Keuruu and Petäjävesi) and data
needed for planning the demonstration in Paroinen.
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4.2. Organigramme of the project team and the project management structure
Figure 1. Schematic figure of the project management and team structure. Team blocks
(bottom row) represent also team responsibilities of the actions as well as involvement (in
parentheses). Team members in parentheses are crucial to the project due to their expertise
but they get their salary from other sources.
4.3. Partnership agreements status (incl. date of signature) and key content
Partnership agreement was drafted by the project manager and the legal counsel of
the coordinating beneficiary according to the LIFE+ guidelines for Partnership
Agreements. It was commented by the project coordinator and the finance coordinator
of the coordinating beneficiary as well as by the legal counsels of the other
beneficiaries. The final agreement (Annex 7.1) was signed by the beneficiaries on 19
February 2014.
The key content of the agreement includes the role and obligations of the
beneficiaries, instructions of supplying the supporting material for reporting, payment
terms, ownership of results as well as publication and confidentiality of the results.
5. Technical part
The project aims to demonstrate cost efficient nitrogen abatement measures in order to
reduce nutrient load and the resulting eutrophication of the Baltic Sea. In particular, it will
demonstrate an innovative sediment filtration system for reducing nitrogen load when
wastewater nitrogen is released as nitrate. The system will use natural ecosystem service
LBS: Actions (B1), C2, D1&2 E1Lauri Arvola, team leader, project managerJussi Huotari, projectcoordinatorTiina TulonenEija Riihiranta, secretary
DPHYS: Action A1Matti LeppärantaTom Kokkonen
UJ: Actions (A1)&A2, B1, C1Marja Tiirola, team leaderSanni AaltoSatu Paukku, financialsecretaryOlli Nousiainen(Hannu Nykänen, teammember)(Antti Rissanen, teammember)(Ville Juusela, team member)
SYKE: Actions (A1), B2, C3, (B3)Catchment modelling:Katri Rankinen, team leaderKirsti GranlundMarkus HuttunenMarie Thouvenot-Korppoo
Lake modelling:Janne Ropponen Janne Juntunen
Water quality:Marko JärvinenIrina BergströmJose Cano Bernal
Aila Riihentaus, financial secretary
MTT: Action B3Lassi Ahlvik, team leaderTiina Kituniemi, financialsecretaryN.N.(Kari Hyytiäinen, externalresearcher, teammemeber)
Team leaders
Project managerLauri Arvola
Project coordinatorJussi Huotari
Steering and Advisory Board:
Stakeholder representatives:Kari Aikio (MTK Häme), Timo Heinonen (HS-Vesi; WWTW), Jari Ilmonen (The Finnish Forest and Park Service), Jorma Kaloinen (Ministry of the Environment), Harri Mäkelä (ELY-Häme), Heikki Pusa (Regional Council of Häme), SaijariinaToivikko (FIWA), Tiina Nõges (Estonia)
Inception report LIFE+ 6
provided by the microbes of the sediment. It will increase both the area and time that
nitrified waste water will be in contact with the reducing microbes and thus is supposed to
increase the reduction of nitrate to nitrogen gas (denitrification) and release of nitrogen
from water into the atmosphere. The effects of various abatement measures of nutrient
loading will be modelled and the estimates of the most cost-efficient nitrogen removal
measures with improved spatial resolution will be provided. Schematic illustration of the
project structure is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Schematic figure of the project structure
5.1. Actions (please follow the structure of your proposal).
5.1.1. Action A
A1: We selected Hämeenlinna/Paroinen, Keuruu and Petäjävesi for the sediment
filtration demonstration sites due to their proximity to LBS and UJ and based on
the interviews with representatives of water utility staff and authorities (M 1.1).
We have collected maps and other documentation needed for planning a
construction of perforated sewage outlet, as well as water chemistry data of the
WWTWs for reference to monitoring in Actions C1 and 2 and for planning the
demonstration for part of the discharge in Hämeenlinna/Paroinen WWTW. Flow
measurements and wastewater discharge flow simulations have been planned to
take place during the ice-cover of the lakes and will be conducted as soon as the
lakes freeze over, after which the most representative monitoring points can be
determined. The flow measurements have been delayed due to late winter but
that will not affect our objectives. The description of monitoring points is
connected in the proposal to M 1.1 (due date 31 January 2014) incorrectly, as the
selection of monitoring points is based on flow measurements conducted during
the winter 2014. The demonstration sites will be described together with the flow
directions of the monitoring sites by 31 December 2014 (M 5.1 and M 6.1).
A2: We have contacted the Regional State Administrative Agency (AVI Western
and Inland Finland) and found out that we should apply water permit for the
demonstrations conducted in Keuruu and Petäjävesi (D 1.1). We have contacted
water protection associate of Kokemäenjoki, which has preliminary agreed to
Action E – Project management
Action E – Project management
Action D1 –Cost-efficient
combinations of measures
Wider impacts for applications
Othercommunication
and dissemination
Action D2 – AfterLife Plan
Action C1 & 2 –N-SINK Moni
Action B1 –N-SINK demo
Action A –Preparation Of B1
Action C3 –Model Moni
Action B2.1 –INCA-model
Action B2.2 –VEMALA-model
Action B3 –Economic module
Inception report LIFE+ 7
prepare the documents needed for water permit application. We have been in
contact with ELY-Häme about the need of permit for demonstration in
Paroinen/Hämeenlinna WWTW. Due to differences in the effluent discharges
and the use of only part of the discharge in the demonstration in
Paroinen/Hämeenlinna WWTW, we probably do not need a permit. We will
check that from AVI Southern Finland shortly when the detailed plan for the
demonstration has been prepared.
5.1.2. Action B
B1: Lake modellers of SYKE attended a discussion with researchers of UJ and
LBS of choosing demonstration areas. To enable measurement of representative
monitoring points and construction plan for extended perforated sewage outlet,
scuba diver chased down, checked the spatial construction of and marked the end
of waste water discharge pipe with buoy in Keuruu and Petäjävesi on 15
November 2013.
We decided to conduct the first demonstration action in Keuruu WWTW in
summer 2014 and the second one in Petäjävesi WWTW in summer 2015. The
construction plan for the extended perforated sewage outlet was ordered from
Pöyry PLC (section of Waste water treatment plants, contact persons Antti
Harinen and Eeva Ronni) and was delivered at the end of January 2014.
In Paroinen WWTW located in Lake Vanajavesi, the demonstration site was
visited and lake sediment, as well as both lake water and WWTW outlet water,
was sampled for preliminary analysis. Water discharge from Paroinen WWTW is
different from that in Keuruu and Paroinen, as the treated wastewater is released
to a small stream (Rautamonoja) draining into a shallow bay of Lake Vanajavesi,
instead of being led through a discharge pipe deeper in the lake. This allows us to
test a different approach in the N-SINK demonstration in order to extent the time
the treated waste water is in contact with lake sediment: part of the discharge of
Rautamonoja is led through a pipe on the shallow sediments and the perforated
sewage outlet is covered with filtration fabric to prevent treated effluent water
immediately to be mixed in the lake water. To be able to estimate the
effectiveness of this approach we will use watertight fencing around the sediment
filtration area and measure the difference in chemical constituents between inlet
and outlet water. Land owner under the influence of our demonstration action
was found out and contacted and his attitude was very positive. We will start the
demonstration in Paroinen in summer 2015.
B2 and 3: SYKE together with MTT organized a workshop for researchers
(M4.1, on 19 December 2013 in SYKE), where a plan on how to combine
catchment, lake and economical models to calculate cost effective allocation of
nutrient abatement measures at watershed level was made. Shortly, catchment
and lake models will provide information on nitrogen retention and nitrogen
loading, which is needed to economic model, which will form the main part of
the tool. We decided that the main agricultural scenarios to be modelled are
based on current agri-environmental programme. We are in time with these
actions.
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5.1.3. Action C
C1: Baseline denitrification activity, dissimilatory nitrate reduction, N2O and
other ecosystem parameters have been monitored bimonthly in Keurusselkä and
the monitoring will continue. First monitoring in Petäjävesi will be done at the
beginning of February 2014.
C2: In Paroinen/Lake Vanajavesi we will start monitoring during spring/early
summer 2014.
UJ, LBS, DPHYS and SYKE kept a meeting concerning the monitoring and
modelling actions of the demonstrations on 20 January 2104 in Jyväskylä.
We have plans to apply additional external funding for the most expensive
analyses in Action C1 and 2, due to the shortage in our budget caused by the cut
off in the late phase of the application process, and use the results in the project.
The analyses, in which the external funding is needed, are for denitrification and
N2O, which both are crucial in estimation the effectiveness of our demonstration
actions. One possibility is to apply funding from FIWA; the next call open for
proposals until the end of February 2014.
5.1.4. Action D
For communication and dissemination, we opened project www-pages (D8.1;
http://www.helsinki.fi/lammi/NSINK/suomi.html) on 20 September 2013. All the
reports, instructions, appearances in media etc. documentation are shared among
partners, stakeholders and all other interested individuals in www- pages. We
organized starting seminar on 1 November 2013 at LBS, with 24 participants
(D8.2; Annex 7.2). University Communications and Community Relations gave
a press release about the project and two general public articles have been
published: one in the local newspaper and another in the customer magazine of
Hämeenlinnan Seudun Vesi Oy. The presentation about the project was given in
the Mid-term Workshop on CAS – AF Cooperative Projects in Peking, China (24
October) and at a local Riihimäki-Hausjärvi Rotary Club (18 November 2013).
We have submitted two abstracts about the project to be presented in the
European Geosciences Union General Assembly on 27 April – 2 May 2014 and
the 13th
International Conference on Urban Drainage 2014 on 7 – 12 September
2014. LIFE+ notice board (Annex 7.2) has been drafted and will be printed after
all partners have given their comments on that.
5.1.5. Action E
Project coordinator was hired on 7 October 2013. We requested stakeholders to
nominate representatives in steering and advisory board on 18 October 2013 and
received the last nomination on 1 November 2013. The first SAB meeting was
organized on 12 December 2013 and it was held at Finnish Environment
Institute.
5.2. Availability of appropriate licences and authorisations
We will apply water permit for the demonstrations to be conducted in Keuruu and
Petäjävesi, but do not probably need one in Paroinen/Hämeenlinna, which will be
checked from AVI of Southern Finland.
Inception report LIFE+ 9
5.3. Envisaged progress until next report.
A1: Flow measurements and wastewater discharge flow simulations will be
conducted as well as the most representative monitoring points determined in the
selected demonstration sites.
A2: Water permit application will be send before the end of February 2014 (M 1.2).
B1: The extended perforated sewage outlet system will be constructed at Keuruu
following the construction plan. A scuba diver will install the filtration system in June
2014 if we get the water permit for the action.
B2: We will start to make a description and first analysis of observed water quality
data by using SYKE’s long time series (M 3.1 Description of monitoring data due to
30 June 2014). We will start to write description of the models and their combination
(M 3.3 Description of the models due to 30 June 2014)
C1: Monitoring of ecosystem effects will be conducted bimonthly in March, May,
July, September and November in both Keuruu and Petäjävesi.
C2: Monitoring in Lake Vanajavesi will start in spring – early summer 2014
D1: LIFE+ notice boards will be printed and set on display at all partners’ premises to
be visible to the public. Project www-pages will be improved and updated regularly.
E1: The second SAB meeting will be organized in 14 May 2014.
We propose new deadlines for Midterm (31 January 2015 → 31 March 2015) and
Progress reports (31 January 2016 → 31 March 2016) due to too long delay (i.e. 20
months) between the originally proposed deadlines of the last two reports. The new
reporting dates allow us to give financial reports over the full year, i.e. until 31
December. It would also ease the rush of our financial secretaries who are in the
middle of other financial statements in January.
Inception report LIFE+ 10
Table 1. Gantt chart illustrating the proposed and actual progress of the planned actions.
Tasks/
Activities
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
1T 2T 3T 4T 1T 2T 3T 4T 1T 2T 3T 4T 1T 2T 3T 4T 1T 2T 3T 4T
Overall project schedule
Proposed
O
O
X
O
Actual
Action A1 Proposed
Actual
Action B1
Action B2
Proposed
Actual
Action B3
Action C1
Proposed
Actual
Action C2
Action C3
Action D Proposed
Actual
Action E Proposed
Actual
Start date Mid-Term End date
X=Progress reports
Inception report LIFE+ 11
6. Financial part
6.1. Putting in place of the accounting system.
All partners use their institutional accounting systems following the general
guidelines of public administration. Funding and costs are directed to the project by
individual project codes. We have prepared and delivered instructions to all partners
regarding to the documentation needed, reporting the costs and registering the
working hours. Partners are asked to report costs every second month or whenever
needed or asked, which has also been written in partnership agreement. All partners
have electronic time registration systems
6.2. Continued availability of co financing.
All co-financiers in the proposal are still involved in the project. We have agreed with
all co-financiers of the amounts and schedules how to invoice their contributions to
the project. We have plans to apply additional external funding for rather expensive
but crucial analyses in Action C1&2 due to the shortage in our budget.
6.3. Costs incurred (summary by cost category and relevant comments).
The following table shows incurred costs until the end of November 2013 although the
technical reporting includes additionally what have been done until the late January
2014. This is because quite a lot has happened after November but we were able to
compile incurred costs completely only until the end of November. At this point we do
not expect any budget modification assuming that we will be successful in receiving
additional external funding to cover the most expensive analyse costs. We expect the
spending rate to speed up early in 2014 when also SYKE and MTT really start to
implement their actions, and to reach the threshold for second pre-financing by the
time of the mid-term reporting, i.e. early 2015.
Fill in the following table concerning the incurred project costs:
Budget breakdown categories Total cost in € Costs incurred from the start
date to 31.11.2013 in €
% of total costs
1. Personnel 1,053,941 31,733.65 3.0
2. Travel and subsistence 25,000 562.77 2.3
3. External assistance 21,000 0
4. Durable goods
Infrastructure 0 0
Equipment 0 0
Prototype 25,000 0
5. Land purchase / long-term lease N/A
6. Consumables 20,101 0
7. Other Costs 0 0
8. Overheads 43,218 0
TOTAL 1,188,260 32,296.42 2.7
Inception report LIFE+ 12
Please fill in also the following additional table (recommended). When compiling the
information please refer to Form B of the proposal:
Action number and name Foreseen costs
Spent so far Remaining Projected final cost
Action A1 66,345 5194.26 61,150.74 66,345
Action B1 113,752 3332.71 110,419.29 113,752
Action B2 184,083 1835.74 182,247.26 184,083
Action B3 146,400 0 146,400 146,400
Action C1 124,326 3598.21 120,727.79 124,326
Action C2 46,014 0 46,014 46,014
Action C3 180,665 0 180,665 180,665
Action D1 67,205 2274.9 64,930.1 67,205
Action D2 225 0 225 225
Action E1 216,027 16,060.6 199,966.4 216,027
Overheads 43,218 0 43,218 43,218
TOTAL 1,188,260 32,296.42 1,155,963.58 1,188,260
7. Annexes
7.1. Partnership agreements
Partnership_agreement.pdf
7.2. Deliverables (see table below)
D 8.1 www-pages: http://www.helsinki.fi/lammi/NSINK/suomi.html
D 8.2.1 Life+ notice board, starting seminar
D 1.2.1 http://www.helsinki.fi/lammi/NSINK/tutkimusalueet.html
7.3. Output indicators. Definition.
indicators_tables2007.xls
Inception report LIFE+ 13
Updated table of the project deliverables. Some deliverables mentioned in the “Details of
proposed actions” were missing in the table on page 70 of the proposal. Also some
deliverables in the proposal were missing deadlines, which are now added in the updated
table. Deliverable 1.2 were split in two due to inconsistency between the content and the
schedule explained in section 5.1.1 as well as D 8.2 because it included Leyman’s report,
Life+ notice boards and Starting seminar, the first to be produced at the end of the project
whereas the other two in the beginning. Deliverable Deadline Date completed Action Description
8.1 30/9/2013 20/9/2013 D1 www-pages
1.1 28/2/2014 A1 Environmental permit application drafted
1.2.1 31/1/2014 31/1/2014 A1 Selection of the study sites
1.2.2 31/12/2014 A1 Report: description of the flow directions and
monitoring points of these sites
8.2.1 31/1/2104 31/1/2014 /
1/11/2013
D1 Life+ notice boards / Starting seminar 1
8.2.2 31/7/2017 D1 Layman's report
7.1 30/4/2014 C3 Conceptual model of linking economical and
ecological approach
3.1 30/6/2014 B2 Report 1. Metadata description of available
water chemistry and biology data from the
target areas = Final documentation of
monitoring data
3.2 30/6/2014 B2 Report 2. Demonstration of the effects of
water protection on water quality in two
heavily loaded river basins in southern
Finland, Lake Vanajanselkä and River
Porvoonjoki.
3.3 30/6/2014 B2 Description of the catchment models/Report
3. Workshop: Description of the model
applications
7.2 30/11/2014 C3 First model results, up-scaling and scenario
2.1 28/2/2015 B1 Progress report
3.4 31/5/2016 B2 Final results of model demonstrations
(Implementation for N-removal scenarios for
Finnish river basins)
7.3 31/5/2016 C3 Final results
7.4 31/12/2016 C3 Final report
5.2 31/1/2017 C1 2 Congress presentations
6.2 31/1/2017 C2 Congress presentations
2.2 28/2/2017 B1 Final report of new alternative method
4.3 30/4/2017 B3 Report 5 Final results
5.3 30/6/2017 C1 Report 2
6.3 30/6/2017 C2 Report 2
5.4 31/7/2017 C1 2 Publications in journals submitted
6.4 31/7/2017 C2 Publications in journals submitted
4.1 30/11/2016 B3 Report 2
4.2 30/4/1017 B3 Report 3
5.1 30/6/2017 C1 Report
8.3 31/5/2017 D1 Final seminar
8.4 31/7/2017 D2 An after Life+ communication plan will be
produced and published in the internet page
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