Protecting Baltic Sea from untreated wastewater spillages during flood events in urban areas

Floods causing inflows of pollutants into the Baltic Sea

Effective control of the stormwaters in urban areas is one of the biggest environmental challenges in the Baltic Sea region as climate change brings along intense rainfalls and storms. Urban drainage systems are not capable to handle the floods, which rises the risk of flushing untreated wastewater from urban drainage systems into the nature. This is harmful to people and environment due to the excessive amount of nutrients, hazardous substances and pathogenic microbes in wastewater.

Holistic planning and smart drainage systems

Urban areas can be prepared for floods by improved planning and self-adaptive drainage operations. NOAH project brings together nine towns and water utilities, seven academic and research institutions and two umbrella organisations from six countries around the Baltic Sea to join their forces.

NOAH’s approach is to create a concept for holistic planning and implement smart drainage systems in real urban environments. Holistic solutions combine stormwater management with spatial planning. This is followed by development of smart drainage systems to make the existing facilities resilient to the impacts of climate change.

Healthier and cleaner Baltic Sea

The NOAH concept will be easily scalable to any urban area around the Baltic Sea. Implementation of the concept could cut up to half of the inflow of pollutants into the Baltic Sea. The activities will be anchored into daily practices of towns and water utilities, leading to healthier and cleaner Baltic Sea!