Climate change will lead to more heavy rainfalls and more drainage from landfills and brown sites on land to water bodies and affect both the ecological and chemical status in water bodies. Old and new environmental pollutants will be absorbed by aquatic organisms, accumulate in the food chains and eventually end up on our food plates. The water management in Norway today, has too little knowledge of environmental pollutants and their impacts on water quality to assess whether the goal of the EU Water Directive will be reached by 2021. The project “Water management in a changing climate” will co-produce new knowledge, and develop new tools, that local and regional managers may use to identify local sources of environmental pollutants and analyze the risk of spreading in a changing climate.

The project group will develop a new digital mapping tool for identifying local pollutants, the "Miljøgiftkartleggjaren" and develop a GIS-based ROS analysis to assess whether pollutants may spread to the aquatic environment due to various climate impacts. The project will also explore and analyze how the collaboration between the municipalities, the County Council and the County Governor are in the three regions and explore new forms of interaction where researchers also participate, to better deal with the complex challenges of climate change on water management locally.

The project partners are Western Norway Research Institute, NTNU Department of Geography, Vestfold and Telemark County Council, County Governor of Vestfold and Telemark, County Governor of Trøndelag, Trøndelag County Council, Vestland County Council and County Governor of Vestland and the municipalities, Tønsberg, Larvik, Sønd, Larvik Oppdal, Orkland, Tynset and Rennebu. The project owner is Vestland County Council, where the water region coordinator Merete Farstad is the project manager.

Start date:
End date:
Id:
6563
Project lead:
Seniorforskar og gruppeleiar Teksam
Project staff:
Researcher and communication advisor