The first set of spring runoff peak flow has been detected in the river Vantaajoki in Finland 5 of April. Baltic Compass has been following the river since October 2010, when the project installed an automatic nutrient load measuring system at Pitkäkoski in the river Vantaanjoki.  The installed monitoring system is part of the Baltic Compass project’s identification of agricultural nutrient run-off risk areas.

The measuring system consists of an optical water quality sensor and a water-pressure sensor coupled with wireless data transmission devices.  Every hour the sensors will automatically take exact measurements of the turbidity, discharge and the nitrate concentration. From the hourly recorded data sent to the webpage of Luode Consulting, nutrient loading can be calculated very precisely. Read more about the Vantaajoki measuring system here.

Spring melt-water flows begin with the break-up of river ice followed in early spring by a rapid rise in snow-melt run-off. Due to the heavy snowpack many streams are expected to see above average snow melt peaks this spring.

A common context of run-off deals with agriculture. When farmland is tilled and bare soil is revealed, rainwater carries billions of tons of topsoil into waterways each year, causing loss of valuable topsoil and adding sediment to produce turbidity in surface waters. The other context of agricultural issues involves the transport of agricultural chemicals (nitrates, phosphates, pesticides, herbicides etc) via surface runoff.

In terms of the land use in its catchment, the river Vantaanjoki is a typical river in southern Finland, there are about 1300 farms and 40 000 hectares of agricultural land in the catchment.

You can follow the spring runoff peak at this link: http://www.luodedata.fi/luodelogin.php

Please contact hydrologist Sirkka Tattari from the Finnish Environment Institute if you want to use the data.

Tel:  +358400148836
Email: sirkka.tattari@ymparisto.fi