River Pallasjoki, Kittilä.
Photo: Ilkka Heikkinen
Freshwater resources are of central importance in the Northern / Arctic regions in all the Nordic countries from many different perspectives. Major changes are occurring in the region, for example various global and regional processes such as climate change and increased use of natural resource.
CAPITAL project is a flagship project for the Finnish Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The main themes of the Presidency are water, nature and people. CAPITAL project addresses all three themes. Using the concept of natural capital and related accounting frameworks the project recognizes the value of freshwater, groundwater and coastal ecosystems in the Arctic regions of the Nordic Countries. The existing literature like the previous reports by the Nordic Council of Ministers about the valuation of ecosystem services and natural capital accounting provides the baseline for environmental-economic data. Monitoring data and hydrological modelling is used to develop physical accounts of water asset. This provides the basis for developing water quality and environmental impact accounts. Quantification of relationship between economic sectors and water quality is paramount for the development of valuation accounts. Augmented accounts consider both the market and non-market values. The concept of social capital is applied to understand how the value accounts can be supplemented with social values.
The workpagages of the CAPITAL-project:
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WP1: Management & Dissemination
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WP2: Concepts and synthesis of existing knowledge on the economic value and socioeconomic importance of arctic freshwaters
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WP3: Development of physical water and externality accounts
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WP4: Regional general equilibrium modelling
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WP5: Development of augmented accounts
Meetings and seminars
Kick-off meeting of the CAPITAL-project: 21.-23.11.2016 SYKE, Helsinki
CAPITAL-project meeting: 16.-17.5.2017 SEI, Stockholm
CAPITAL-project meeting: 24.-25.10.2017 SYKE, Helsinki
CAPITAL project organized a final seminar as a part of the UArctic Congress 2018 September 7th 2018.
Publications
The final report Arctic Freshwater Capital in the Nordic Countries
Nordic Council of Ministers Policy Brief: Arctic Freshwater Capital in the Nordic Countries, Natural Capital Accounting
Salminen et al. 2018. Improving data quality, applicability and transparency of national water accounts – A case study for Finland. Water Resources and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wre.2018.05.001
Lai et al. 2018. Bridging the gap between ecosystem service indicators and ecosystem accounting in Finland. Ecological Modelling 377:51-65
Vesitalous 5/2017, Arktiset vedet (Arctic waters), (in Finnish with English abstracts)
Contact person
Project leader, Soile Oinonen, Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, phone: +358 40 514 7790, firstname.m.lastname@ymparisto.fi