Water monitoring in Moon Lake Park with nature-based solutions

Water monitoring in Moon Lake Park with nature-based solutions

5 August 2021

The proGIreg living lab in Ningbo has been focusing on innovative water quality monitoring and aquatic plant maintenance in 2021, to improve the water quality in Moon Lake and to gather data to support the planning of local environmental compensation processes.

The Living Lab is also engaging in SOPARC analysis - a direct observation framework to gather insights on how well the park serves a variety of users. This analysis is done to ensure that the Living Lab area attracts a wide variety of groups and meets local demands. The SOPARC framework entails gathering information on a) area characteristics e.g. accessibility, usability, supervision, and organization and b) users physical activity levels, gender, activity modes/types, and estimated age and ethnicity groups. To enhance the analysis the local team is also engaging users with visitor questionnaires with qualitative analysis ongoing.

To enhance the water quality in Moon Lake, many large aquatic plants such iris and canna were planted on the lakeshore with community involvement, to help establish proGIreg nature-based solution (NbS) community-based urban gardens on site. The aquatic plants in the lake are maintained continuously with local gardeners, with the lake cleared of debris regularly.

Photo: Cultivation of aquatic plants in Moon Lake, Credit – IUE-CAS

Further to help establish NbS into local urban planning and prove their benefits, the Living Lab is doing a brilliant job in gathering data on NbS for local environmental compensation processes.
They are collecting water samples to monitor water quality with weekly sampling (see top photo). The management of the parks environment is a Public-Private Partnership Project, allowing for a  effective environmental incentive scheme, where the local government has agreed to compensate all treatment costs if the water quality meets the requirements within the a certain time limit.

Ningbo is truly taking a participatory approach, with their second co-design workshop in the planning phase, to further consult the citizens on their experiences with NbS Living Lab, and to co-create future designs.

Top photo: Collecting water quality data, credit – IUE-CAS

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 innovation action programme under grant agreement no. 776528. The sole responsibility for the content of this website lies with the proGIreg project and in no way reflects the views of the European Union.