Oulujoki Case-study area, Finland
Case-study purpose: The River Oulujoki is one of the six case studies of the Watersketch project describing environmental problems and conflicts in river basins and supporting their sustainable use and development by creating a new tools and methods for proper river basin management and planning. The case study is divided into four parts, each interlinked in the full report:
- Part 1: Sub-study of peat production focused on creating a planning system for the assessment of the environmental impacts of new land use activities in a river basin, using peat production as an example of a new loading source.
- Part 2: Sub-study of forestry focused on evaluating harmful effects of forestry on small lakes.
- Part 3: Sub-study of hydropower detailing conflicts between different forms of use of the river and evaluating different options of regulating the flow and water level.
- Part 4: Sub-study of protected areas, developing criteria for assessing conservation values of Natura 2000 areas in relation to Water Framework Directive, and applying these into practical management.
Geographical placement and land use: The Oulujoki river basin is located in boreal zone in the Fennoscandian ecoregion in Northern Finland. It is one of the largest river basins in Finland totalling 22841 km2. In its upper reaches, the river system is characterized by chains of short river stretches and lakes. The flow and water level of the Oulujoki river system have been regulated since 1940's mostly for hydropower production. Most of the river channels are dredged. Presently, 18 hydropower plants produce energy more than 2500 GWh, having power more than 550 MW. To facilitate the power production, water levels are regulated in more than 1400 km2 of lake area. The catchment area is dominated by forests. The basin is relatively sparsely populated, the total amount of population being 226 000, which makes 11,5 inhabitants per square kilometre. The population is concentrated to the western parts of the basin, where the river discharges to the Baltic Sea.
Ecological status, main pressures and threats to the watercourse: The forestry operations, such as clear-cutting, drainage and tillage, may have significant impacts especially on the ecological status of the small upstream lakes and rivers. Locally, also peat production may deteriorate water quality and ecology. A large part of the river basin still reaches good ecological status, but the main river channels and some large lakes can be initially designated as heavily modified. Some small lakes of the basin are also suffering from eutrophication. According to the traditional Finnish surface water usability classification system, most parts of the Oulujoki river basin belong to the usability class "Good". The natural conditions of the watercourse have been affected by dredging carried out to serve hydropower production and timber floating including also damming and flow regulation. Also drainage for agriculture and forestry affect on status of rivers and lakes. The water usability category at the mouth of the Oulujoki River and in the adjacent sea area has declined due to effluents from pulp and paper and chemical industries and municipal sewage. Wastewater pollution is most abundant in the water areas downstream of the cities of Oulu and Kajaani. Elsewhere, the pollution load originates mainly from non-point sources, such as agriculture and forestry.
Tools and methods used in the case study: The case study was done by dividing it into four parts, each performed separately, but tied together by a basic introductive section. The introduction includes also a pressure matrix serving as a general overview of the pressures in the area. The tools and methods used in different parts of the case study are described below:
- Part 1:
- In-depth description of peat production.
- Description of environmental status of watercourses affected by peat production and other land-use derived sources of non-point pollution.
- Summary of different indicators on the quality of the river below the loading sources.
- Part 2:
- Questionnaires for exploring stakeholders' opinions of the effects of forestry actions on lakes. The stakeholders were asked to evaluate the status and its changes of their neighbouring lake on general level, human actions which may have caused the changes, and also measures by which the status could be improved.
- Calculating ecological quality ratios for different biological elements. Creating WFD compatible ecological status assessment.
- Part 3:
- An overview of the effects of water level regulation.
- Cause-effect linking between regulation activities and their immediate effects on the environment in order to find the comprehensive ecological impacts of water level regulation.
- Describing ecological potential of heavily modified water course.
- Part 4:
- Describing water dependent wetlands according to principles of WFD
- Different management actions of protected areas were created and their effects were estimated.
The GIS-based tool RiverLifeGIS was introduced in most of the sub-case studies in the Oulujoki catchment as a potential solution in improving the sustainable management of river basins. RiverLifeGIS was used for following tasks in several study sites in the Oulujoki river basin:
- to define upper drainage areas of study sites
- to examine the land use and compute its distribution of the study sites
- to estimate nutrient loading imposed to the study sites. This estimation was based on the land use and specific characteristic load figures for different land use types.
Results and outcomes: The main results of the Oulujoki case study are described below:
- The results show that increased transport of nutrients and suspended solids to river channels cause eutrophication and siltation of the river bed. In order to avoid these negative environmental changes in the river, it is important to decrease the total land use derived nutrient pollution imposed to the river as effectively as possible.
- Simultaneous or consecutive actions in different parts of the same catchment area may amplify the impacts of the forestry operations. The best tool for solving the problem would be detailed spatial planning together with improved forestry planning systems.
- In order to reduce the symptoms of deterioration caused by nutrient loading, spatial means for more efficient water pollution control measures (such as buffer zones and wetlands) should be implemented in close cooperation of water managers and spatial planners.
- An essential result of the Oulujoki case study is that the anthropogenic actions chosen as the targets of the study are affecting the status of the River Oulujoki only slightly. The results indicate that the aims consonant with the WFD are realistic.
Interactive map
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Click to view an interactive SVG map of the case area, MapViewSVG of the Oulujoki Case area
SVG-viewer is needed. Does not work with Mozilla Firefox. 
Description and introduction to SVG can be found here
Attributes included in the layers on the SVG map
- Lakes:
- Class of lake, 21: Lake, 22: Lake in island, 31: River > 100m (CLASS)
- Water quality of lake, 1: Excellent, 2: good, 3: Satisfactory, 4: Passable 5: Poor (WQCLASS)
- Area of the lake in square kilometres (AREA_KM2)
- River:
- Length of the river in meters (LENGTH)
- Type of river, 433: Width <5m, 432: Width 5-20m, 431: Width 20-100m (TYPE)
- Water quality of river, 1: Excellent, 2: good, 3: Satisfactory, 4: Passable 5: Poor (WQCLASS)
- Population centers:
- Land area in square kilometres (LAND_KM2)
- Water area in square kilometres (WATER_KM)
- Population in corresponding year, from 1980-2000 (POP_1980- POP_2000)
- Amount of jobs in corresponding year, from 1980-2000 (JOBS_1980- JOBS_2000)
- Peat: No attributes, layer displays the area covered by peat.
- Land Cover:
- Corine Land Cover, Level 1 classification (LEVEL1)
- Area in square kilometres (AREA_KM2)
Additional information
Pdf document with more details on the case area can be found here.
Contact information: SYKE, Ulvi Teemu: teemu.ulvi@ymparisto.fi
