Water quality monitoring in the Bothnian Sea and the Bothnian Bay

Since May 2010, a service based on satellite data for regular water quality monitoring in the Great Lakes and Northern Baltic Sea, have been officially launched (www.vattenkvalitet.se) . The service provides the aquatic end user community with regular and recent water quality information with large coverage. The purpose of this project is to investigate the possibility to expand the monitored area to also cover the Bothnian Sea and the Bothnian Bay.

Introduction

SEPA, the River Basin District Authorities, the county administrative boards, the societies for water conservation, water companies and other organisations have the task to monitor, restore and preserve the natural conditions of the lakes and sea, and to provide the community with high quality drinking water. Their work consists of, for example, sampling, analysis and evaluation of the results from their field based programs. The River Basin District Authorities foresees a growing demand of a remote tool for status classification on a general level and our assumption is that remote sensing could be the right tool to accomplish that.

Objectives

The general objective of this project is to evaluate if remote sensing based water quality monitoring is possible in the Bothnian Sea and the Bothnian Bay. Good results have been achieved over the lakes and the northern Baltic Sea, but the sun angles are lower and the water is darker (more dissolved organic matter) in these areas. If the results are good, we want to further develop the operational water quality-monitoring platform and user oriented products to also include this area. The project is a two-year project with focus on developments during 2011 and evaluation and pilot production during 2012.

For more information, please visit www.vattenkvalitet.se or call Petra Philipson 070-699 60 46.

Participants

Petra Philipson
Brockmann Geomatics Sweden AB
Tel: 070-699 60 46
petra.philipson@brockmann-geomatics.se

Susanne Kratzer
SU, Dep. of Systems Ecology, SU
Tel: 08-161059
susanne.kratzer@ecology.su.se

Agneta Andersson
UMU, Dep. of Ecology and environmental sciences
090-7869845 or 090-7867975
Agneta.andersson@emg.umu.se

Juha Salonsaari
Vattenmyndigheten, Bottenhavet
Tel: 0611-349087
Juha.salonsaari@lansstyrelsen.se

Peter Wihlborg
Vattenmyndigheten, Bottenviken
Tel: 0920-96073
Peter.whilborg@lansstyrelsen.se