The free Ecosystem Services (ESS) evaluation software tool by DESSIN helps decision-makers to make the best choice by evaluating the effects that innovative solutions have on freshwater ecosystems and their services. The tool identifies and measures the ecosystem services that are provided to humans by nature. While this may sound simple, many different ecosystem services may be present at a particular location, and the tool helps to make sure that all of them are considered. It suggests indicators for measures of ESS provision and use, as well as economic valuation methods.

Click to read more

In the 5^th issue of the DESSIN newsletter you can read about the latest news and achievements of the project. The publication includes a description of the technologies that are being tested in the Emscher demo site and an interview with Nadine Gerner, the Emscher project leader. In the DESSIN Marketplace section you will find explained the monitoring and evaluation system for market entry, developed by Adelphi. In the ESS Section there is a brief summary of an interesting article on the DESSIN Ecosystem Services Evaluation framework, applied to the case of the use of infiltration ponds for artificial aquifer recharge in the Llobregat (Barcelona) mature site. Last, but not least, the final DESSIN event, which will take place as a public workshop on November 28th in Brussels alongside with the WssTP Water Knowledge Europe brokerage event, is announced. Please take a look at our Call for Papers.

Click to read more

On 28 November 2017 the final DESSIN event will take place in Brussels. The joint DESSIN and WssTP workshop will deal with Ecosystem Services (ESS), Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) and Hybrid Grey-Green Infrastructure (HGGI).

Call for papers: We are inviting European and international projects that are at an advanced stage to present their key findings and success stories about implementation and benefits of ESS concepts, NBS or HGGI in the water sector. Projects should have a clearly applied focus, not on fundamental research but dealing with the actual (and successful) demonstration of solutions and benefits.

Click to read more

EYDAP and NTUA organized two informative DESSIN workshops, which were held on 23rd and 25th of May 2017 at the premises of EYDAP in Athens. Aim of the workshops was the demonstration of DESSIN results and Athens’ sewer mining pilot to specific groups of stakeholders. The first workshop was attended by graduate, post-graduate, PhD students and by post-doctorate researchers from the fields of water and environmental science. The second was mainly addressed to water utility managers, municipal authorities and academic experts.

Click to read more

The next annual DESSIN magazine is now available for download.

Focus of the issue mainly lies on a review of the last project years and an outlook of the upcoming and final project year. There also is an interview with DESSIN scientist Dr.Koen Zuurbier (KWR), who graduated at the TU Delft on findings from the Westland demo site. Furthermore, there is a piece about the DESSIN Ecosystem Services Evaluation Framework, a piece about the demo site in Westland and an article about the Green Business Award for DESSIN and EYDAP. Enjoy the read!

A special issue on managed aquifer recharge (MAR) of MDPI Water has been released. It is aiming at hydrogeochemical and water quality management aspects, such as the benefits of self-purification during aquifer recharge and storage, including bank filtration, and problems due to undesired water-aquifer interactions and clogging of infiltration and injection systems. From both, the Barcelona and the Westland demosite, a paper was submitted and accepted for publication.

Click to read more

At the Emscher site, two innovative technologies have been – or are still being – pilot-tested. Both have the aim to improve water quality in rivers and streams which will have positive effects on ecosystem service provision. This improvment is being achieved via a reduction of overflowing combined sewage water into streams during heavy rain events or – in case overflows occur – via a reduction of the particle load entering the streams.

The two technologies are 1) a cross-flow lamella settler to improve combined sewage water treatment inside storage facilities in the sewer network, developed by DESSIN-partner UFT and 2) the ADESBA real-time-control system to enhance storage of combined sewage inside the sewer network, developed by DESSIN-partner SEGNO. Click to read more

DESSIN scientists from the Ecologic Institute and Emschergenossenschaft in Germany, KWR Watercycle Research Institute in Holland, SINTEF in Norway, CETAQUA in Spain and DHI (Danish Hydraulic Institute) in Denmark have published an Open Access Paper about European experiences in Governance Regime Factors Conducive to Innovation Uptake in Urban Water Management.

Innovative ways to manage the urban water cycle are required to deal with an ageing drinking and waste water infrastructure and new societal imperatives. This paper examines the influence of water governance in enabling transformations and technological innovation uptake in urban water management. A governance assessment framework is developed and applied in three case-studies, examining different scales and types of innovations used to tackle challenges in European urban water management. Click to read more

This Open Access paper has been written by Koen Zuurbier and Pieter Jan Stuyfzand and is about the experiences of the aquifer storage and recovery system at the Demosite Westland. It shows how the system was struggling with saltwater intrusion, what the driving mechanisms for this were, and how this could be counteracted. This counteraction was brought into practice in the DESSIN project and successfully lifted the production of freshwater at the site. It is shown that there are good prospects for application of this sustainable technique in the area. Click to read more

DESSIN has just issued a video about one of its solutions to tackle water scarcity. At Athens, DESSIN demonstrates sewer mining technologies as a novel concept for distributed re-use within the urban environment, exploiting state-of-the-art information and communication technology solutions for distributed monitoring and management of multiple sites combined with small packaged plants.
The demo site is also being used as a test bed for testing reused water characteristics on the soil, irrigating onsite peri-urban green. The demo site examines a major component of ecosystem services (ESS) specifically relevant for arid regions: the mitigation of heat island effects due to irrigation of urban green.