Finland II – Municipality of Ruukki

About

The case study site in the Municipality of Ruukki is about 20 ha with grass cultivation on shallow peat soils in boreal climate. It is a major experimental site administered and monitored by the Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE). The Ruukki field has been facilitated by 6 different drain blocks that drain the water from the entire field. During the WAETRAGRI and other projects, several hydrometeorological, groundwater table monitoring instruments have been installed. Data collection and environmental monitoring of hydrology and water quality is ongoing with special focus on controlled drainage influence on water quality in organic (peat) soils. The data can be useful for computational model development and agricultural nutrient loading assessment from peatland.

Tested Solutions

At the Municipality of Ruukki the following solutions are tested:

  • Integrated physically-based terrestrial system models
  • Tracer methods

Partners involved in solutions testing are Natural Resources Institute Finland and University of OULU

Solution Test Progress

Integrated physically-based terrestrial system models

Computational model (DRAINMOD) was successfully built for all 6 field blocks of the case study site. But calibration turned out to be challenging. The project work continues to improve calibration to the site.

Tracer methods

Stable water isotopes were frequently collected from the case study site. Data analysis, and documentation is ongoing.

Bio-based nutrient-collecting membranes

Data collection, analysis for water quality and loading analysis at the case study site has been carried out successfully. Further, documentation of results is ongoing.

Publications

  • Ghag K., Ahrari, A., Mustafa S., Panchanathan A., Liedes T., Klöve B., and Torabi Haghighi A. Integrated irrigation and drainage approach to overcome summer droughts in Nordic conditions. 2022. EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria. Conference Publication
  • Mustafa, Syed Md Touhidul, Kedar Ghag, Anandharuban Panchanathan, Bishal Dahal, Amirhossein Ahrari, Toni Liedes, Hannu Marttila et al. 2022. Smart drainage management to limit summer drought damage in Nordic agriculture under the circular economy concept. Hydrological Processes. Article in Journal
May, 2023
May, 2023

PhD course on data analysis: Agricultural water and nutrient management: novel
approaches on water retention and nutrient recycling.

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