MANTEL ITN

How can we make our lakes more shock resistant so that society will not have to suffer negative consequences such as toxic algae blooms that compromise recreation or the treatment of drinking water? Building on the science in MANTEL, Project 11 focuses on the socio-economic aspect of rehabilitation measures. The Project will pay special attention to the reality that an effective set of physical measures is not the only precondition for high societal benefits. Social aspects such as access to the lake, legal restrictions for entrepreneurs, and division of costs and benefits for stakeholders, play an equally important role. This ESR will make an inventory of the key determining social design factors that determine the success (in terms societal of benefits) of lake restorations. They will determine the benefits of increasing the resilience of three study systems; i.e. Mark-Vliet-Dintel catchment (NL), Volkerakzoommeer-Binnenschelde catchment (NL), and Sau reservoir catchment (ES). These systems from North-western Europe as well as Southwestern Europe, offer different constraints to how benefits can be realized. Close collaboration with ICRA (Dr Vicenç Acuña) will ensure that this is recognized. Secondly, using expertise from the MANTEL consortium they will identify measures that lead to these benefits. Thirdly, to create awareness on how benefits of lake rehabilitation are generated, they will work in close collaboration on innovative outreach activities with consultancy Witteveen + Bos. The main objective is to provide a decision support framework that allows both stakeholders as well  as researchers to come to a benefit-oriented rehabilitation plan to make degraded lakes more resilient to extreme events.

​

Maggie Armstrong is the ESR for Project 11. Maggie will be primarily based in the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Netherlands, supervised by Dr Lisette de Senerpont Domis, and will be co-supervised by and spend study time with Dr Elisabeth Ruijgrok, Witteveen + Bos, and Dr Vicenç Acuña; Catalan Institute for Water Research, Spain. The PhD will be a double degree awarded by University of Girona and Wageningen University.