Taking action: Source-to-sea case studies from around the world

Aerial image of a river mouth in a built up town. — S2S-Case-Studies

This selection of case studies shared by partners and friends of the Action Platform for Source-to-Sea Management (S2S Platform) highlight lessons learned during the implementation of source-to-sea management to accelerate source-to-sea action.

As the triple planetary crisis aggravates, we must move beyond discussing possible solutions and start taking action on the ground. Source-to-sea management has been increasingly recognized across the world as key to decisively addressing development challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. The aim of this collection of case studies is to continue to encourage the uptake of source-to-sea management by complementing the existing reports, guides, and tools with practical recommendations and lessons learned from the field.

BY:

José Pablo Murillo

Programme Officer

jose.murillo@siwi.org

+46 72 050 6045

Ruth Mathews

Senior Manager

ruth.mathews@siwi.org

+46 (0)720 50 60 79

Source-to-sea management recognizes that there are linkages from land, to freshwater, the coasts, and the ocean, creating a continuum from the source to the sea. This source-to-sea continuum is linked by the key flows of: water, biota, sediment, pollutants, materials, and ecosystem services. When any of these are altered in one part of the source-to-sea system, those alterations can have impacts either upstream or downstream of where they occur. Source-to-sea management takes these upstream-downstream linkages into account, it takes a holistic view of the source-to-sea system, recognizing that doing so will result in greater benefits for the system as a whole.

The following map shows the geographical location of the case studies. Use the coloured buttons to filter those that fall within a specific category. Alternatively, all the case studies can be downloaded from the section below.

Readiness level: Early to mid-stage

New Delhi, India-May 23 2022: city waste water falling in River Yamuna in New Delhi, India

Readiness level: Early to mid-stage

Reducing nutrient pollution in the waterbodies of Delhi

Delhi is a major Indian city with 30 million inhabitants with insufficient wastewater treatment infrastructure and outdated technologies. As a result, surface and underground freshwater bodies are heavily polluted leading to significant eutrophication and biodiversity loss.

Readiness level: Early to mid-stage

Varje skit räknas (Every shit counts)

The Baltic Sea suffers from eutrophication in the form of toxic algal blooms and oxygen depletion. Sweden has been actively trying to reduce nutrient flows into its water bodies and has identified inadequate horse manure management as a significant contributor of phosphorous.

Readiness level: Mid to advanced stage

Readiness level: Mid to advanced stage

Marine and freshwater scientific collaborations in the Tamar catchment

The Tamar river catchment in the south east of the U.K. provides a vast array of essential ecosystem services. However, local economic activities, such as agriculture and animal husbandry, are negatively affecting the river ecosystem and services it provides.

Readiness level: Mid to advanced stage

Regional coordination for a healthy Western Indian Ocean

The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region, consisting of 10 east African nations, has historically been one of the least ecologically disturbed areas globally. Unfortunately the region is now under threat from pressures such as pollution, habitat destruction, and changes in freshwater flows and sediment loads.

In partnership with

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Race for the Baltic

Topics

Water Governance

The case studies presented here are an initial compilation of projects and initiatives provided by partners and friends of the S2S Platform who are applying key principles of the source-to-sea approach. It is important to note that the use of the term ‘source-to-sea’ is recent so not all case studies explicitly use this term and those that do are often at an initial stage.

The main criteria used to select the cases to be analysed was that they:

Addressed a source-to-sea challenge. These challenges occur when activities in one part of the source-to-sea system alter at least one of the six key flows (water, biota, sediment, pollutants, materials, and ecosystem services) with impacts in other locations of the source-to-sea system.
Featured cross sectoral and upstream – downstream stakeholder collaborations. Source-to-sea challenges cannot be solved in one location or by one sector. Solutions for source-to-sea challenges require coordination across sectors and cooperation between upstream and downstream stakeholders.
Represented a range of geographical locations and sizes of the area of intervention. A diverse set of cases were selected to exemplify the adaptability of source-to-sea management with the aim of encouraging a broad range of actors to implement it. Consequently, they include large transboundary projects as well as experiences at the local level.

Once the initial selection was completed, the case studies where analysed based on the information received from project teams, online research and interviews with the project leads or other colleagues who were involved in the project.

Taking action: Source-to-sea case studies from around the world

BY:

José Pablo Murillo

Ruth Mathews

Readiness level: Early to mid-stage

Reducing nutrient pollution in the waterbodies of Delhi

Varje skit räknas (Every shit counts)

Readiness level: Mid to advanced stage

Marine and freshwater scientific collaborations in the Tamar catchment

Regional coordination for a healthy Western Indian Ocean

In partnership with

Topics

YOUR INFORMATION

Readiness level: Early to mid-stage

Reducing nutrient pollution in the waterbodies of Delhi

Varje skit räknas (Every shit counts)

Readiness level: Mid to advanced stage

Marine and freshwater scientific collaborations in the Tamar catchment

Regional coordination for a healthy Western Indian Ocean

In partnership with