Project

Floating islands as biodiversity pit stops and pollution cutouts towards more resilient cities – BioFloat

Active project

2024–2027

Project contact

The BioFloat project aims to design and test the concept of floating islands in three lakes in Estonia and Latvia. Floating islands are human-made floating structures with dense aquatic vegetation that serve various functions, such as water purification through absorption, habitat for fishes, birds, and other organisms, breaking waves, and landscape improvement.

In Estonia, the pilot lake is Põrmujärv, located close to Võru City in South Estonia. The lake’s ecological status is poor, with a high nutrient concentration, little oxygen and a high cyanobacteria biomass. The lake has high public interest and is surrounded by active residents whose enthusiasm motivates experts to seek solutions. The lake has great importance as its water ends up in the River Võhandu, the longest river in Estonia. Põrmujärv also has a crucial economic role and is part of nature conservation areas.

SEI Tallinn is responsible for the hydrological monitoring of the pilot lake and for calculating the lake’s water balance. Our hydrological measurements will be the basis for calculations of the nutrient balance of the lake. The experts plan to create a real-time data transmission from water quality and quantity sensors to local residents around the lake.

SEI Tallinn also leads the networking and communication work with the local community around the pilot lake to engage and inform locals about the project’s progress and make our work as visible and transparent as possible. Opportunities for active engagement and sufficient information exchange have the potential to raise public support for the pilot solution and make the local residents active agents for change who can contribute to improving the status of the lake.