SUPERVISOR: Günter LANGERGRABER

PROJECT ASSIGNED TO: Erika Yessenia CUIDA LÓPEZ

In Europe, there are more than 500.000 natural lakes with a surface higher than 1 ha 1. However, many lakes have bad or poor ecological status due to heavy nutrient and chemical loading from external sources, as well as hydro-morphological pressures, water abstraction, and climate change impacts. According to WISE Water Framework Directive database2 published in 2021, almost 11,5% of the lakes reported by EU Members States, Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom are in poor or bad ecological status, while 32,5% reach a moderate ecological status.

Despite the EU Water Framework, Directive 3 set a deadline for all water bodies to reach good status by 2015, according to Europe's State of Water 2024 report4, in 2021, only 37% of Europe’s surface water bodies achieved a good or high ecological status, while just 29% reached a good chemical status. The fact that most surface waters still fail to meet these objectives highlights ongoing challenges related to pollution, habitat degradation, and the persistence of long-lasting contaminants.

In this context, a critical need arises to strengthen initiatives and actions to improve the ecological status of various European water bodies. This need becomes even more pressing in the face of climate change, exacerbating and intensifying its impacts on these aquatic ecosystems. ProCleanLakes5 is a Horizon Europe project that aims to develop an Action Plan and Guidelines for long-term restoration and protection of the ecosystem and biodiversity of European Natural Lakes. This includes designing and implementing Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in three natural European lakes, each affected by different pressures and stressors.

NbS involves using natural processes and ecosystems to address environmental challenges. NbS focuses on improving water quality in the context of lakes by mitigating pollution, sedimentation, and nutrient over-enrichment. Some key NbS for improving lake water quality include riparian buffers and wetlands, reforestation and afforestation, aquatic vegetation restoration, constructed wetlands & biofilters, and soil erosion control6. 

To this end, the ecological status of three natural lakes in Europe, located in different climate conditions and affected by different pollutants and stressors, will be assessed using available historical data and recent physicochemical characterization of water and sediment samples, including nutrients (N/P balance), heavy metals, and specific emerging pollutants as PFAS, PAH, pharmaceutical compounds and microplastics. Based on the results, NbS will be designed and implemented for each case, aiming to improve the ecological status of each lake. This will involve reducing the concentration of identified pollutants specific to each site.

Within the framework of this Horizon European project, this doctoral research aims to:

  • Collect and analyze historical physical-chemical data on water and sediments from the selected lakes affected by various anthropogenic activities such as mining and agriculture, including lakes where NbS have been implemented and those that have not been intervened. The first ones will be used as a reference for the effectiveness of NbS and other measures implemented.

  • Assess the current physical-chemical status of the selected lakes based on on-site measurements and laboratory analyses of specific chemical stressors of the evaluated case studies, e.g., heavy metals, PFAS, PAHs, and microplastics.

  • Evaluate the effectiveness of the NbS in the selected natural European lakes based on decreasing pollutant concentrations in the lakes, both in water and sediments.

Within the conceptual framework of HR21, this research project is particularly linked to the governance and connectivity research clusters. The governance aspect is relevant because the findings of this study will contribute to the action plan and guidelines for the restoration and protection of European lakes developed by ProCleanLakes project. The second connection relates to the project's comprehensive approach, which integrates social, ecological, hydrological, and landscape aspects. This is achieved through the active involvement of various stakeholders in the dynamics of each evaluated lake and through the characterization of their ecological status.

 

References

(1) Lakes. European Environment Agency. www.eea.europa.eu/archived/archived-content-water-topic/lakes/lakes (accessed 2025-02-06).

(2) WISE Water Framework Directive Database. www.eea.europa.eu/en/datahub/datahubitem-view/dc1b1cdf-5fa0-4535-8c89-10cc051e00db (accessed 2025-02-10).

(3) European Commission. Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council Establishing a Framework for Community Action in the Field of Water Policy; 2000. eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/.

(4) European Environment Agency. Europe’s State of Water 2024: The Need for Improved Water Resilience.; Publications Office: LU, 2024.

(5) proclean. ProCleanLakes – Integrated emerging approaches for joint protection and restoration of Natural Lakes in the spirit of European life heritage support. ProCleanLakes. procleanlakes.eu (accessed 2025-02-10).

(6) Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (European Commission); Wild, T. Nature-Based Solutions Improving Water Quality & Waterbody Conditions: Analysis of EU Funded Projects; Publications Office of the European Union, 2020.