SOLUTIONS - SOLUTIONS FOR PRESENT AND FUTURE EMERGING POLLUTANTS IN LAND AND WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

SOLUTIONS searches for advanced concepts, monitoring tools and models to support decisions in environmental and water policies. The overall goal of this 5-year project (started on 1st October 2013) is to produce consistent solutions for the large number of legacy, present and future emerging chemicals posing a risk to European water bodies with respect to ecosystems and human health. To reach this objective SOLUTIONS develops a new generation of monitoring approaches and bio- & chemo-analytical tools for the identification and prioritisation of toxic substances and mixtures. To support comprehensive risk assessment on a European scale, SOLUTIONS develops and applies a fully integrated set of emission, fate- and transport, and risk models that provide spatially and temporally explicit information on exposure to and risks of emerging pollutants in all European river basins. The added value of the new generation of tools and models is demonstrated in trans-European case studies (Danube, Rhine, and rivers of the Iberian Peninsula) with links to existing monitoring programmes such as the Joint Danube Survey. Eventually it also aims to elaborate a coherent conceptual framework for the assessment, prioritization and abatement of pollutants and mixtures thereof to protect European waters and to minimize ecological and human health risks.

GLOBAQUA will cooperate with SOLUTIONS mainly on joining sampling campaigns. A fish sample collection on the Sava River, as case study of both projects, will be performed with members of SOLUTIONS and GLOBAQUA. As a different line of joint experiments, several GLOBAQUA river basins will participate on the non-target screening of water samples organised by SOLUTIONS following its sampling protocol. Data will be used in the large scale context but are also available for more local studies leading to joint publications.