Demonstration experiences > Westeinderplassen Lake (The Netherlands)
Westeinderplassen Lake
(The Netherlands)
Description
Lake Westeinderplassen (10 km2) is a relatively shallow lake, originating from peat excavation. On the northern side there are many small islands. The lake is used for commercial shipping as well as for recreation. There are two official bathing water sites. The lake and the bathing water sites are monitored by local water authority Rijnland.
Current situation
In summer, lake Westeinderplassen often suffers from blooms of the cyanobacteria Microcystis, which can produce toxins. The bathing water sites are regularly monitored according to the Dutch “Blauwalgenprotocol”, which conforms to the EU bathing water protocol. However, due to laboratory processing time it can still happen that a warning for the audience is late. When cyanobacteria are detected in too high quantities the audience is warned to not swim. Such a warning often remains for the season, leading to losses for the touristic sector (e.g. restaurants). Rijnland is very active in reducing the chances of cyanobacteria blooms in the lake. At some vulnerable locations aeration pumps are installed to prevent cyanobacteria forming layers of scum, however, these pumps cannot be turned on all the time because of their energy consumption.
Actions to be carried out within the LIFE CYANOBLOOM project
Rijnland wants to turn one of the bathing waters in Westeinderplassen into a ‘smart bathing water site’, with partly automatic monitoring, to warn the audience faster of bad water quality, but also to be able to quickly remove the warning again after a bloom has disappeared to prevent commercial losses. Therefore, Rijnland is very interested in the CYANOBLOOM methods.
CYANOBLOOM will set up a satellite-based bloom mapping service for lake Westeinderplassen, which will in 2025 be combined with a WISPstation for high-frequency in situ monitoring. These two will be combined to carry out targeted sampling for genetic analysis of cyanobacteria species.
Expected results
The expected result of CYANOBLOOM is a system that Rijnland can use for early detection of (potentially) toxic blooms and mitigation actions by coupling it to warnings to the audience and/or to the activation of the aeration pumps.