AquaBiota supports municipalities in the process of water management, coastal and marine environmental planning, water plans and blue plans.
Municipalities are in large part responsible for reaching environmental quality standards (EQS) for water. Among other things, water plans shall be developed if there is a risk that the EQS are not reached. In addition, the coastal municipalities get many other tasks within coastal and marine planning. To get a full comprehension of the ecological values, environmental concerns and need of measures, it may be beneficial to include the municipal waters in a general plan. This approach simplifies the coordination with neighbouring municipalities and follows the water administration slogan that the water is unrestrained and needs to be managed across administrative boundaries.
How municipalities choose to manage the requirements from the Swedish water authority may vary. Concepts and tools, like blue plans, water programmes, water plans and coastal planes are used. Whatever the form and concept is used, AquaBiota can develop the plan or contribute with material and data for decision support, like:
- Inventory of species and habitats, as well as mapping of sea floor, depth, land use and influencing factors in river basins
- Conservation value estimation
- Proposed measures to achieve EQS or maintain and develop conservation values
- Maps with conservation values, impacts and action needs
- Reports and GIS-tools which constitutes concrete and accessible tools for various municipal functions
If required, AquaBiota also provide:
- Conservation and management plans of protected areas
- Restoration plans for lakes, wetlands and streams
- Decision support for updating the municipal comprehensive plans
- Decision support for local marine planning (follow the link to read more about our work with marine spatial planning).
Contacts: Frida Fyhr