VesiMon project to improve lake status assessment and monitoring

Finnish lakes are in relatively good condition, but they are exposed to diverse threats. To maintain the good condition of our lakes, their status must be monitored on a regular basis.

The VesiMon project is developing new methods for lake status monitoring. Current official monitoring methods may be deficient, laborious or expensive.

The project is focusing on nine Finnish lakes that are affected for example by waste water from municipalities, mining, peat extraction sites and the forest industry. Lake-polluting industries are necessary for the green transition and for making Finland more self-sufficient in terms of certain raw materials.

Methods will be developed to make the assessment and monitoring of lakes more cost-effective and accurate. Carefully chosen monitoring methods will allow environmental authorities to detect changes in the status of lakes at an early stage.

Optimally, the outcomes of the project will help industry and environmental authorities to use more targeted methods for assessing environmental impacts and for operational monitoring.

The VesiMon project partners are the University of Helsinki, KVVY Tutkimus Oy and the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE). The project will run from 2022 to 2026, and is funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Ministry of the Environment.