Workshop for the adaptation of water management sector of the city of Lappeenrata

The City of Lappeenranta was the fourth demonstrator which conducted workshops to setting up adaptation pathways. Three half-days workshops were organised in November 2022 which invloved all stakeholders for all Key Community Systems (KCS) : Water management and Urban planning.
The main objective of the process is to co-construct adaptation pathways, made up of a sequence of decision-points and measures allowing for decision making despite uncertainty in Lappeenranta based on local and scientific expertise.

Adaptation of Laapeenranta's water management sector

Lappeenranta is a Finnish city situated in the region of ‘South Karelia’ (aka. Etelä-Karjala) on the south-eastern frontier of Finland, 30 kilometres away from the Russian border. The city is located on the shores of Lake Saimaa, which is the biggest lake in Finland and the fourth biggest lake in all of Europe. Because of that, Lappeenranta is considered one of the major urban centres in the Saimaa region. The city’s main water intake is the lake water, which a decade ago was polluted by the proliferation of algae. To address the issues, a pollution control station, designed by Lappeenranta University of Technology and built by a local company, cost the city around 2.5 million euros (LCI, 2021). Since, water conservation has been a major area of interest for the city.

Water management sector

Although it was difficult to come up with the measurable indicators, the pathways were relatively simple
to form in context of highest impact to climate adaptation. The stakeholders brought up effect of time
on the pathways: different pathways and actions might have different time scales. While some actions
can be taken immediately and the outcome can be seen in short term, there are pathways which require
more time to be effective.