HELSINKI COMMISSION HELCOM AGRI/ENV FORUM 2/2011 HELCOM Baltic Agricultural and Environmental Forum Second Meeting Dessau, Germany, 16-17 May 2011

Agenda Item 3 Implementation of agriculture-related actions in the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan Document code: 3/3 Date: 10.5.2011 Submitted by: Secretariat together with the Baltic COMPASS Project

THE BALTIC COMPASS ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP TOOLS FOR ASSESSMENT OF NUTRIENT LOSSES FROM AGRICULTURAL AREAS

The Baltic COMPASS project is currently carrying out 1) review of the diffuse nutrient load assessment methods in all riparian countries to enable better comparability and transparency and 2) identification of high risk agricultural areas on the Baltic Sea Region level in terms of nutrient loss potential. The work is led by Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) in partnership with MTT-Agrifood Research Finland (MTT) and HELCOM. The work will be presented in detail for the HELCOM Agriculture/Environment Forum at the Meeting consisting of the following parts:  Visualisation of PLC data together with modelled erosion risk The PLC data for 2006 was analysed and maps were produced to point out the river basins which have the highest as well as the lowest area specific total nitrogen and total phosphorus loads into the Baltic Sea. In addition, the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) was applied to the whole Baltic Sea Drainage Basin with spatial resolution of 90 meters. The spatial coverage includes the whole Baltic Sea Drainage Basin. The maps are provided for the consideration of national experts in the Contracting States and Belarus.  Illustration of advantages of automatic monitoring for more accurate nutrient load assessment The use of sensors with wireless data transmission in water quality monitoring has increased in recent years in Finland. An advantage with automatic monitoring compared with the occasional, manual sampling is the continuous, even hourly, data which greatly improve the accuracy of the environmental loading calculated out of the monitored parameters. However, well-functioning automatic monitoring system provides more accurate estimates of nutrient loading than traditional water sampling but only when combined with well-balanced set of water samples for site-specific calibration of the sensors. In addition careful maintenance, especially cleaning of sensors, is needed.

The Meeting is invited to take note of the information and request HELCOM LAND to decide on the next steps in the process to map high risk agricultural areas in the presented resolution on the Baltic Sea scale. The Meeting is further invited to take note of the presented information on the comparison of assessment methods and automatic water monitoring and to invite HELCOM MONAS and HELCOM LOAD to consider application of the proposed Guidelines in HELCOM’s work on monitoring and assessmentof nutrient loads from diffuse sources.

Note by Secretariat: FOR REASONS OF ECONOMY, THE DELEGATES ARE KINDLY REQUESTED TO BRING THEIR OWN COPIES OF THE DOCUMENTS TO THE MEETING

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