Consortium

The DOMQUA consortium consists of research institutes and universities, drinking water suppliers and drinking water stakeholders in three Nordic countries Norway, Sweden, and Finland. These are the three Nordic countries where climate change is expected to increase the DOM content of raw water and thus pose adaptation problems for the drinking water industrial sector. The research institutes involved have all investigated the effects of climate change on surface water quality, and have worked together with the drinking water industry in their respective countries. The drinking water plants involved in the project have hands-on experience with challenges in water treatment relating to sudden and long-term variations in DOM.

Scientific and administrative organisation and management of the project

Project leader of DOMQUA is Dr Heleen de Wit at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) in Oslo, supported by the Scientific Steering Group which includes lead scientists, i.e. Dr Martyn Futter at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Uppsala, Professor Dr Lars Tranvik at Uppsala University (UU), Dr Helge Liltvedt (NIVA), Dr Pirkko Kortelainen at the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) in Helsinki and Dr Isabel Seifert (NIVA). This group covers the key expertise required by the project (DOM sources, reactivity of DOM, drinking water treatment, and economic valuation), WP leaders and the main partners. The Scientific Steering Group will meet twice a year to ensure good planning, interaction between WPs and communication of progress and results across WPs. The Scientific Steering Group will be responsible for dissemination of results to the scientific community and to stakeholders.

A stakeholder and industry advisory board has been established consisting of Kjetil Furuberg (Norsk Vann), Heidi Pekar (Livsmedelverket, Sweden) and Veli-Pekka Vuorilehto (Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority, HSY). The board will meet annually with the Scientific Steering Group and will also be invited to relevant meetings of WPs. A major role of the advisory board is to flag the interests and needs for relevant results of the stakeholders. It will also give advice on appropriate dissemination channels to reach drinking water stakeholders.

Project partners and their role in the project

The Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) is Norways foremost professional competence centre for environmental and resource issues relating to the field of water. NIVA carries out research, monitoring, innovation and development work. NIVA plays a vital role in water resources management as a provider of research-based studies and advisory services. NIVA has a central role in providing scientifically based knowledge for policy-making on water related issues. NIVAs broad scope of competence, research expertise and extensive data collections represent an important resource for Norwegian business activities and industries, public administration on a municipal, regional and national level, and for Norwegian interests in the international arena.

Heleen de Wit is a catchment scientist with strong interest in carbon cycling and water quality. She is project leader with administrative responsibility. Dissemination and stakeholder interaction will be an important part of the project coordination. She will work on trends and drivers of DOM, regional patterns of DOM quality and quantity and INCA-C modelling. In WP2, she will contribute to the task on short-term climatic variations in DOM. In WP3, she will contribute synthesis of results.

Helge Liltvedt is a specialist in water and waste water treatment. He will lead WP3 (adaptation) and is co-leader of WP2 (reactivity). His contribution to the project concerns biological and chemical characterization of raw water and drinking water, synthesizing knowledge of existing and new technologies for DOM removal, with cost assessments.

Kari Austnes is catchment scientist with strong interests in modelling and DOM characterization. She will lead Task 2.3 (short term climatic variation, use of high-frequency in-situ sensors) and will contribute to INCA-C modelling.

Isabel Seifert is an environmental economist with an interest in societal adaptation to climate change. She is involved in WP3 and will lead Task 3.2 and 3.4. Her contribution will be to assess costs of water treatment and adaptation to climate change, and synthesize results of the project in Bayesian Belief Networks.

Ingun Tryland has specialized in water supply and sanitation technology. She has several projects in close collaboration with drinking waterplants. Her contribution to the project will be to assess costs of adaptation to changing raw water quality in the case study of the water treatment plant Oset in Oslo.

University of Oslo. The Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, conducts research in all fields of biology. It hosts the Norwegian and Nordic Centre of Excellence Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES). Dag O. Hessen leads the newly started research project Effects of climate change on boreal lake ecosystems: Productivity and community responses (ECCO), funded by the NORof the Research Council of Norway. ECCO includes studies on the changes of DOM in surface waters due to climate change.

Dag O. Hessen is has a strong interest in climate effects on carbon cycling in catchment and surface waters. His contribution will be regionalization of future DOC trends (Task 1.3) and study of reactivity of DOM in multifactorial experiments (Task 2.2).

Tom Andersen is an expert in combining ecological theory with mathematical modelling, with special interest in freshwater carbon cycling. He is one of the developers of the MyLake model. His contribution will be in Task 1.2, where INCA-C and MyLake model applications will be linked together.

University of Oslo, The Department of Chemistry has a unit devoted to environmental research. This research is interdisciplinary, using knowledge of chemistry, chemical analysis and statistics along with modelling /simulation, in collaboration with other natural scientists and social scientists, to generate knowledge for sustainable management of our natural resources. A major focus is the study of hydro-, bio- and geo-chemical processes that control the leaching and transport of chemicals from soil to fresh water. This includes research on eutrophication, mobility and transport of heavy metals from soil to water, the effects of climate change on water quality and the properties and the role of natural dissolved organic matter (humus). Our specialty is on fractionation /speciation.

Rolf Vogt is an analytical chemist with strong interest in environmental chemistry and the role of organic matter in soils and freshwaters. He will contribute to the chemical characterization of DOM in Task 2.2.

SYKE. The Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) is both a research institute and a centre for environmental expertise of Finland. SYKE’s research focuses on changes in the environment, and seeks ways to control these changes. Expertise is based on long-term environmental monitoring, wide-ranging research results, and highly-qualified staff. SYKE’s research programmes assess environmental problems from a multi-disciplinary perspective, by integrating socio-economic considerations into scientific research. SYKE serves as the national centre for environmental data in Finland, and its’ information systems are widely used for environmental monitoring, environmental modelling, forecasting and impact analysis. The key scientists have been involved in many EU/FP7 and national research projects, and have access to large databases and modelling systems.

Pirkko Kortelainen is a biogeochemist and limnologist with a long record in C cycling and studying trends and controls of DOC in freshwaters, and leads the Teaquila project. Her role in DOMQUA is to co-lead WP1, and contribute to data collection and analysis of temporal and regional patterns in DOC and colour in surface waters.

Martin Forsius is a biogeochemist with expertise in effects of climate and deposition on element cycling in catchments and freshwaters, and on ecosystem services offered by these ecosystems. He leads the Climes project. His contribution to this project will be to co-lead WP3 and do the case study of climate adaptation in Helsinki in Task 3.4.

Maria Holmberg is an environmental modeller with strong interest in catchment element cycling and adaptation to climate change. She will contribute to INCA-C modelling in Task 1.3.

SLU. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment is a centre for freshwater and forest soil research with a special focus on environmental monitoring and assessment. At present the department consists of about 30 senior and post-doc scientists and some 14 PhD students. The department is divided into four research sections: biodiversity, geochemistry, organic environmental pollutants and modelling.

Martyn Futter is a catchment scientist and modeller. He has co-developed the model INCA-C, and has experience in using the model in a number for applications from C-cycling to prediction of raw drinking water quality. His role in DOMQUA is to lead WP1, and Task 2.2. He will work with INCA-C at the case study level and upscale results to water treatment raw water sources, and at the regional level for Fennoscandia. He will also conduct statistical analysis of trends in DOM and colour.

Stephan Köhler is a catchment scientist and has specialized in applied problems related to drinking water treatment, and participates in the Genomembrane project. His contribution to the project will be in WP2 characterization of raw and treated water in Task 2.1, and evaluation of effectiveness of treatments for removal of DOM, and in Task 2.3 in relation to use of in-situ monitoring of raw water for dosage control. Also, he will contribute to Task 3.1 in evaluation of technologies for removal of DOM.

University of Uppsala. The limnology program is one of four research programs at the Department of Ecology and Genetics and is part of the Evolutionary Biology Centre (EBC) at Uppsala University. The research of the limnology program has several main foci, with considerable interactions between them, i.e. microbial ecology, biogeochemistry, and community ecology. Of specific relevance for DOMQUA is the work on freshwater carbon cycling with an emphasis on interactions between sunlight, organic matter, and bacteria, as well as linkages between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The limnology program is hosting a national strong research environment funded by the Swedish Research Council FORMAS,The Color of Water interplay with climate, and effects of drinking water supply (CoW).

Lars Tranvik leads the limnology program at the University of Uppsala and the Color of Water project. His contribution to the project will be to lead WP2, and Task 2.2 on reactivity of raw and treated water, and treatability. He will also contribute to dissemination and synthesis of the results in WP3, task 3.4.

Gesa Weyhenmeyer is an aquatic biogeochemist with a strong record in research on climate-freshwater interactions. She will lead Task 1.1 on trend analysis and will contribute to Task 2.3 on short-term climatic variation on DOM quantity and quality.

HSY. Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority is a regional authority providing environmental services for residents and companies in the Helsinki area. Its principal duties comprise water and waste management as well as providing regional information services. HSY is the most prominent environmental body in Finland. It brings together the waterworks of Espoo, Helsinki, Kauniainen and Vantaa as well as the waste management services and the regional and environmental information services provided by the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council (YTV). HSY employs approximately 800 people. The goal is to ensure that environmentally sound decisions and actions can be made effortlessly for all the residents of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

Veli-Pekka Vuorilehto is the Director of the Division of Water Treatment at HSY. He is engaged the Nordic challenges for drinking water treatment related to high DOM for instance through his participation in Nordic seminars and cooperation on increase, removal and characterization of DOM in relation to drinking water. He will be on the advisory board of DOMQUA.

 Susanna Kankanpää is climate specialist at HSY. She coordinated the Helsinki metropolitan area climate adaptation strategy work . She will contribute to WP3, the case study of Helsinki.

Oslo water and sewage works (Oslo VAV)

Lars Hem is process engineer at the Oslo Water and Sewage Works, with strong expertise in drinking water treatment with regard to humus removal and corrosion control. He will contribute to all tasks in WP3, regarding overview of technologies for humus removal, cost assessment of adaptation and more specifically to the case study of adaptation to changed raw water quality in the Oslo water works.

Uppsala Vatten och Avfall AB.

Philip McCleaf is a drinking water process engineer with expertise on process control and planning of new water treatment plants at the Uppsala Water and Wastewater treatment. His role in the project will be to contribute to the overview of technologies for DOM removal and cost assessment of adaptation.

Norsk Vann. Norsk Vann is the trade organisation for the water and wastewater sector in Norway. Norsk Vann aids municipalities and industry in efforts to insure good water quality in Norway. Norsk Vann has a wide network and works together with its members to strive for scientific and technological development for the sector in Norway.

Kjetil Furuberg works in Norsk Vann water committee and is engaged in Nordic cooperation on water treatment and source water quality, for instance through organization of seminars on changes in raw water quality and water treatment. His role in the project is the advisory board.