Protecting streams for a clean Black Sea by reducing sediment and litter pollution with joint innovative monitoring and control tools and nature-based practices

Programme 2014 - 2020 Black Sea Basin ENI CBC

Date of latest update: 2024-03-22

Description

Description (EN):

The Protect-Streams-4-Sea project focuses on a joint environmental monitoring of nonpoint source pollutants and litter that end up in the Black Sea. This is a main priority of the Black Sea Programme and essential, because once the enclosed Black Sea is polluted, it is very difficult to depollute. Most cleaning efforts focus on the sea itself or along the coastal areas. The watersheds that end in the Black Sea have not been focal points despite providing many of the pollutants and litter. A similar example is the Mississippi Basin that transports the pollutants that have created the dead zone in the Mexico Gulf. The idea of this project is to stop the nonpoint source pollutants and litter from reaching the streams and rivers and consequently not reaching the Black Sea. If successful, this can cost-effectively maintain a clean Black Sea that will benefit the welfare of the entire region. This will be achieved by using innovative methods (fingerprinting) to correlate landscape position with the pollutants in the stream water and bed. Soil samples will be taken along stream banks, soil surfaces and in-stream. This way the origins and the contributions of sediment and other nonpoint source pollutants to the stream water and bed will be estimated. The origins could be the stream banks (e.g. steep, non-vegetated, etc.) or soil surface with different land covers (e.g. burnt areas, flooded areas, forests, degraded or specific crops). In addition, traditional (erosion pins, runoff plots) and new innovative (remote sensing, indices and drones) methods will be used for the pollutant estimations. Hydrologic models will be applied to simulate the pollutants at the watershed scale based on the project data from the fingerprinting method and the stream bank and bed and soil surface plots. A Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis and a Decision Support System will be developed to find the “hot spots” and recommend best management practices in each pilot area. Hot spots are the areas that contribute most pollutants and/or litter. The recommended practices will be nature-based and applicable to the entire region. The final part will develop and/or test innovative tools/machines: 4 litter traps (in Armenia, Greece, Moldova and Turkey) and 1 skimmer vessel (in Romania) in the pilot area water bodies to collect litter and other pollutants. The pilot areas will be in five different Black Sea countries allowing to test the tools and methods in different environments representative of the region. This should help the tools and methods adoption by all Black Sea countries and lead to a joint monitoring program for inland nonpoint source pollutants and litter. With Universities, NGOs and public authorities partnering on this project the methods and tools developed will be science-based and practical. Finally, numerous and diverse communication activities will help reach all target groups and lead to the adoption of these joint monitoring methods and tools in the region.

Achievements (EN):

Marine litter is defined as any persistent, manufactured or processed solid material discarded, disposed or abandoned in the marine and coastal environment. It consists of items that have been made or used by people and deliberately discarded into the sea or stream/rivers or on beaches; brought indirectly to the sea with rivers, sewage, stormwater or winds; accidentally lost, including material lost at sea in bad weather (fishing gear, cargo); or deliberately left by people on beaches and shores. The annual amount of sea debris in the World is estimated to be 6 million tons. The presence of marine debris presents a hazard to shipping and is esthetically detrimental, thus generating negative socio-economic consequences. The Turkish Black Sea coast is 1695 km long, extending from the Bulgarian border in the west to the Georgia border in the east. Assessments of stream and beach litter show that a large amount of debris (plastics, wood pieces, metals, glass, clothes, paper etc.) has been observed in different areas of the southern Black Sea coasts. From these, plastics and synthetic materials are the most common types. In Türkiye, the partners of the project Protecting streams for a clean Black Sea by reducing sediment and litter pollution with joint innovative monitoring and control tools and nature-based practices assessed the different types of litter in the sub-watershed of the Arhavi River Basin and installed litter trap to mitigate litter stream pollution.

Website: http://blacksea-cbc.net/

Expected Results (EN): R 2.1 Level of availability of cross-border compatible environmental monitoring data and information

Expected Outputs (EN):

The project main results will lead the protection to the Black Sea by reducing the pollutants and litter originating from the inlands from reaching the Black Sea that is the main objective of the proposal. Emphasis will be given to pollutants and litter that originate from rivers and their watershed that end in the Black Sea because they can provide most of the pollutants and litter and because typically less emphasis is given to these compared to pollutants and litter that are in the sea or originate along the seacoast. The specific results will firstly be the identification of the major sources of the inland pollutants and litter and their potential contribution to the Black Sea Region. The second will be the development of recognition of important new tools based on new technologies specific for the Black Sea regions that would allow the development of a joint monitoring program for all the countries in the region. Thirdly based on the new developed monitoring tools and the identification of the sources, best management practices will be recommended that should lead to the reduction of non-point sources pollutants and litter from surrounding and connected watersheds thus leading to the reduction of pollutants and litter reaching and ending in the Black Sea. At the same time this will be done through the collaboration of five different countries that should lead to the joint environmental protection of the Black Sea region thus allowing for sustainable growth and enhancing the welfare of the people of the region. This will also be achieved because the sites will be in different countries thus covering a variety of natural environments of the Black Sea and the tools will be tested in these environments indicating their applicability to the entire region.

Thematic information

Evaluation systems and results Waterways, lakes and rivers Waste and pollution

Thematic Objective: Environmental protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation

Partners (5)

Lead Partner: The Legal Successor of Technologiko Ekpedeftiko Idryma Anatolikis Makedonias kai Thrakis-Special Account for Research Funds (TEIEMT-SARF), the International Hellenic University Special Account for Research Funds (IHU-SARF)

Department: Department of Forestry and Natural Environment

Address: 14th km Thessaloniki - N. Moudania National Road -, 57001 Thermi, Thessaloniki, Greece

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.for.ihu.gr/index.php/el/

Total budget: EUR 280 075.00

ENI budget: EUR 257 669.00

Eco-TIRAS International Association of River Keepers

Name: Eco-TIRAS International Association of River Keepers

Department: -

Address: Teatrala 11A, 2012 Chisinau, Moldova

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.eco-tiras.org

Total budget: EUR 139 890.00

ENI budget: EUR 128 698.80

Buzau-Ialomita Water Administration

Name: Buzau-Ialomita Water Administration

Department: River Basin Management Plan Office

Address: Bucegi Street 20 bis, 120208 Buzau, Romania

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.rowater.ro

Total budget: EUR 139 304.00

ENI budget: EUR 128 159.68

Artvin Coruh University

Name: Artvin Coruh University

Department: Forestry

Address: Seyitler Yerleşkesi, Merkez 218A, 8100 Artvin, Turkey

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.artvin.edu.tr

Total budget: EUR 207 866.00

ENI budget: EUR 191 215.93

"Young Foresters Union" non-govermental organization

Name: "Young Foresters Union" non-govermental organization

Department: -

Address: v. Koghb 4110, 27 Yerevan, Armenia

Legal status: public

Total budget: EUR 140 000.00

ENI budget: EUR 128 800.00

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Eco-TIRAS International Association of River Keepers

Protecting streams for a clean Black Sea by reducing sediment and litter pollution with joint innovative monitoring and control tools and nature-based practices

Partners and Projects info

Buzau-Ialomita Water Administration

Protecting streams for a clean Black Sea by reducing sediment and litter pollution with joint innovative monitoring and control tools and nature-based practices

Partners and Projects info

Artvin Coruh University

Protecting streams for a clean Black Sea by reducing sediment and litter pollution with joint innovative monitoring and control tools and nature-based practices

Partners and Projects info

"Young Foresters Union" non-govermental organization

Protecting streams for a clean Black Sea by reducing sediment and litter pollution with joint innovative monitoring and control tools and nature-based practices

Partners and Projects info

The Legal Successor of Technologiko Ekpedeftiko Idryma Anatolikis Makedonias kai Thrakis-Special Account for Research Funds (TEIEMT-SARF), the International Hellenic University Special Account for Research Funds (IHU-SARF)

Protecting streams for a clean Black Sea by reducing sediment and litter pollution with joint innovative monitoring and control tools and nature-based practices

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Protecting streams for a clean Black Sea by reducing sediment and litter pollution with joint innovative monitoring and control tools and nature-based practices

Project acronym: Protect-Streams-4-Sea

Project start date: 2020-07-20

Project end date: 2023-07-19

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 907 135.00

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 834 543.41

Co-financing sources:

ENPI/ENI/NDICI: Amount, EUR 834 543.41.

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 Black Sea Basin ENI CBC

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2023-06-15

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

57 / 57 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

281 / 281 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://blacksea-cbc.net/), or a website directly linked from it, on 2024-02-01.

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Protecting streams for a clean Black Sea by reducing sediment and litter pollution with joint innovative monitoring and control tools and nature-based practices

Description

Thematic information

Partners (5)

Partners map

Summary

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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