Re-Establishing a Natural Water Flow Level in the River System “Mølleåen”. REFLOW
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Re-establishing a natural water flow level in the river system “Mølleåen”. REFLOW River Mølleå at Frederiksdal Final report covering Januar 1 st 2009 to March 31 2012. Project number LIFE07/NAT/DK/000100 1 LIFE Project Number LIFE07 NAT07/NAT/DK/000100 FINAL Report Covering the project activities from 01.01.2009 to 31.03.2012 Reporting Date 30. June 2012 LIFE+ PROJECT NAME or Acronym Re-establishing a natural water flow level in the river system “Mølleåen”. REFLOW Data Project Project location Denmark north of Copenhagen Project start date: 01.01.2009 Project end date: 31.06.2011 Extension date: 31.03.2012 Total Project duration 30 months Extension months 9 months (in months) Total budget € 4.669.642 EC contribution: € 2.334.821 (%) of total costs 50% (%) of eligible costs 50% Data Beneficiary Name Beneficiary Danish Nature Agency (Danish Forest and Nature Agency) Contact person Ms Ida Dahl-Nielsen Postal address Gillelejevej 2B, 3230 Græsted, Denmark Visit address Gillelejevej 2B, 3230 Græsted, Denmark Telephone 0045-72543000 + direct 72543184 Fax: 0045 48 46 56 01 E-mail [email protected] direct [email protected] Project Website http://www.naturstyrelsen.dk/Naturbeskyttelse/Naturprojekter/Projekter/ Hovedstaden/Molleasystemet/ 2 1. List of content 1. List of content ................................................................................................................... 3 2. Executive Summary ........................................................................................................... 4 2.1 Executive Summary in Danish ......................................................................................... 9 3. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 10 4. Administrative part ........................................................................................................ 13 4.2 Evaluation of the management system ........................................................................... 15 5. Technical part ................................................................................................................. 16 5.2 Evaluation ....................................................................................................................... 34 5.3 Analysis of long-term benefits ....................................................................................... 34 5.4 Dissemination issues ...................................................................................................... 38 5.4.1 Dissemination: overview per activity ............................................................... 38 5.4.2 Layman's report ................................................................................................ 40 5.4.3 After-LIFE Communication plan ..................................................................... 40 6. Comments on the financial report ................................................................................ 43 6.1. Costs incurred ................................................................................................................ 43 6.2. Accounting system ........................................................................................................ 44 6.3. Partnership arrangements .............................................................................................. 44 6.4. Auditor's report/declaration ........................................................................................... 44 7. Annex ................................................................................................................................... 45 7.1 Administrative annexes .................................................................................................. 45 7.2 Technical annexes .......................................................................................................... 45 7.3 Disseminations annexes ................................................................................................. 46 7.4 Financial annexes ........................................................................................................... 46 7.5 Final indicators tables ..................................................................................................... 46 7.6 Financial report .............................................................................................................. 46 3 2. Executive Summary Project area is the water catchment area for the river system “Mølleåen The LIFE-project Re-establishing a natural water flow level in the river system “Mølleåen”. REFLOW was started the 1 January 2009 and ended the 31 March 2012. The project is often just called REFLOW. The project number is LIFE07 NAT/DK/000100. The river system Mølleå is situated just north of Copenhagen. It is placed between urban areas and nature areas. The overall main objective of the project is to contribute to a favourable conservation status of European river systems by demonstrating how to re-establish a natural water flow level by transporting sufficiently treated wastewater back into the river system. The objective is to establish better conditions for the 3 Habitat sites and 1 protected Bird site, now combined in 2 Nature 2000 sites within the project area. The project also contributes to the biodiversity in the project area. The Nature 2000 sites of the river system constituting the project area have a unique nature of regional, national and European importance: 16 annex I habitat types are present of which five are prioritised by the Community, as well as six annex II and/or IV species. However, the conservation status for several habitat types and species of Community importance is considered unfavourable or uncertain. The natural water flow level in the river system has been greatly reduced mainly due to long lasting water extraction for drinking purposes to the capital and a reduced influx of rainwater due to the large proportion of urban areas in the catchment area. Model calculations estimate that the current water flow from Lake Fure to the lower part of the river system has been 4 reduced with ca. 200 l/s (yearly average) to about 400 l/s compared to the original average water flow (around year 1900). The insufficient water flow, in particular downstream Lake Fure and the reduced water quality, directly impacts a range of habitat types and species within the project area. Moreover, this modified flow regime has impoverished the general condition of the river system, threatening the resilience and long term conservation status of the associated habitats and species. In addition, other threats such as eutrophication, watercourse modification and encroachment are negatively affecting the conservation status of annex-listed habitat types and species within the Nature 2000 sites. Objectives 1 The overall main objective is to contribute to a favourable conservations status of European river systems by demonstrating how to re-establish a natural water flow level by transporting sufficiently treated wastewater back to the river ecosystem. The purpose with this demonstration project was to document results and capture lessons learned to ensure European dissemination to provide valuable information in the efforts to address challenges of re-establishing a natural flow regime in other European river systems near urban areas. 2. The specific objective of this demonstration project is to implement a concerted conservation action plan to restore and maintain a favourable conservation status of selected habitat types and species of the Nature 2000 sites within the ‘Mølleåen’ river ecosystem. The main specific objective is to re-establish a natural water flow level of the river ecosystem to improve the conservation status of several habitat types and species. The other objectives are to address the threats of eutrophication, watercourse modification and encroachment by supplementing with specific complementary conservation actions on selected localities with highest conservation value. 3. Finally, the project also aims to improve the conditions of the biodiversity in the project area in order to contribute to halting the loss of biodiversity. The project contains from the beginning different specific activities. Not all the activities have been completed, but it is still the intent to do: • Re-establishment of a natural water flow level of the river system by transporting adequately treated wastewater back to the river system. Treated wastewater that is currently being directed to the marine recipient “Øresund” will receive further advanced treatment to ensure high water quality. The plan is to transport up to 200l/s back into the upper river by establishing a pipeline (app. 3.9 km) from the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) “Mølleåværket” to Lake Kalvemosen upstream. • Restoration of Lake Vejle and Lake Søllerød with a neutralization of the potentially leachable phosphorus sediment by the application of a phosphor immobilisation product aluminium as described and decided in the EIA. • The small watercourse from Lake Kalvemosen to Lake Vejle is planned to be expanded to ensure sufficient space to absorb the increased water flow. • Watercourse restoring two sections of Hestetangs Å and Vassingerødløbet – the upper part of river Mølleåsystemet. The plan is to established re-meandering and elevation of streambed etc. on 1.7 kms of river. Clearing of app 15.8 ha of trees and shrubs and expansion of grazing enclosures at the