NANNUT – Nature and Nurture of the Northern Baltic Sea 2009-2012
NANNUT project aims to protect the underwater nature of the Northern Baltic archipelago and coastal areas by improving the facilities to implement sustainable planning. The University of Turku, Centre of Maritime Studies (CMS) Pori Unit will be part of this project beginning in 2009.
The outcomes (methods, best-practices, innovative tools, experiences) can also be applied in other Central Baltic areas. NANNUT aims to increase sustainable infrastructure by firstly, developing and testing locally optimal methods in collecting and processing the underwater data and secondly, by adapting the usage of underwater information into stakeholders ordinary work. CMS is responsible for collecting the existing underwater data near Turku and Kotka harbours and developing it into usable form for stakeholders and decision makers.
The coastline of the Northern Baltic Sea constitutes a mosaic of islands and bays with a very heterogeneous submerged landscape. The archipelago of Finland, Åland and Sweden is naturally nutrient rich and very productive with unique and species rich flora community. The shallow bays and sheltered archipelago areas are also important for the reproduction of a number of fish species and provide the foundation to entire food webs. The area with its characteristic nature gives refreshment for the visitors and income for the inhabitants as the human activity is also concentrated on the shallow basins. A prerequisite for sustainable planning of the area is to know the special characters of the underwater nature. Natural values are taken into account in usage of terrestrial environment, but unfortunately there is a lack of basic tools and co-operation between experts and stakeholders in the marine environment. The project will be carried out in the Southwest of Finland, the municipalities of Åland and the archipelago of Stockholm in Sweden.
Joining the Centre of Maritime Studies in this research are also the Aronia research/Novia university of Applied Sciences (Ab Yrkeshögskolan vid Åbo Akademi/Novia), the Southwest Finland Regional Environment Centre (Lounais-Suomen ympäristökeskus), the Natural Heritage Services (Metsähallitus), the Government of Åland (Ålands landsskapsregering), the Stockholm University Department of Botany (Stockholms universitet/Botaniska avdelningen), the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute (Riista- ja kalatalouden tutkimuslaitos), the Southeast Finland Regional Environment Centre (Kaakkois-Suomen ympäristökeskus), the Regional Council of Southwest Finland (Lounaispaikka) and the Uusimaa Regional Environment Centre (Uudenmaan ympäristökeskus).
Further information:
Sari Repka
tel. +358 (0)40 801 9206, sari.repka@utu.fi
