Protecting the aquatic environment from urban runoff pollution

Major progress has been achieved in protecting European freshwaters through the successful implementation of urban wastewater treatment infrastructures but significant pressures still pose threats to the quality of the receiving water bodies. The recent evaluation of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive underlined that, in particular stormwater overflows including urban surface run-off and combined sewer overflows bring relevant pollutant loads into the aquatic environment. The pressure on water resources from those kinds of emissions is expected to aggravate through the impacts of global climate change with more frequent intense precipitation as well as more pronounced drought conditions. To address those challenges new ways in effectively mitigating pollution arising from urban run-off and sewer overflows are needed, providing effective load reduction, in a way affordable as well as acceptable to end-users and the society. The StopUP project will elucidate pollution pathways in urban catchments to enable targeted interventions through measures at source, retention and treatment. It will foster knowledge about emissions incl. pollutant release, transport and receiving water bodies through advanced monitoring concepts, online sensors and data processing and analysis. In the context of different case studies, innovative technologies for pollution prevention such as advanced retention soil filters for combined sewer overflow treatment which can be integrated better in urban areas will be further developed and tested. The tests will demonstrate integrated solutions including monitoring, treatment and control of diffusive pollution in different contexts concerning geographic, climatic and hydrological as well as socio-economic settings. Based on the findings, tools to support selection, implementation and operation of pollutant mitigation measures for end-users including environmental authorities, water boards/utilities, consultancies will be derived.