The XXI International Environmental Forum "Baltic Sea Day" will be organized on 23-24 March 2021 under the theme "Sustainable Development for the Baltic Sea – Long Road to the Healthy Baltic Sea". UBC Sustainable Cities Commission will take an active part in the forum, presenting own activities as well as highlighting the achievements of its BSR WATER platform.

The Forum will be held in a hybrid format, with online participation, as well as personal presence in the meeting room, taking into account safety recommendations and COVID restrictions.

All programmes and links to the stream are available on the Forum's website. Below are the links to the opening of the Forum and the sessions relevant to BSR WATER. Links to the stream on Youtube:

• Plenary Session and Panel Discussion, 23 March 10.00-12.00 CET+2
• Increasing resilience of the Baltic Sea to climate change, 23 March 13.30-18.00 CET+2
• Smart water management: regional strategies, best practices and expertise exchange from the BSR WATER platform, 24 March 10.00-14.30 CET+2

The forum will incorporate panel discussions and 9 expert seminars focusing on different aspects and approaches for improving the state of the Baltic Sea. The opening plenary session will focus on the implementation and the update of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan, with a panel discussion following to bring various stakeholders to evaluate the success of the BSAP for 2007–2021.

The expert seminars and roundtables of the first day will emphasize the topics of hazardous substances, maritime spatial planning, river basin management, climate change adaptation and industrial symbiosis. The second day will bring the session on environmentally friendly agriculture, as well as the BSR WATER workshop for the stakeholders in the region.

Increasing resilience of the Baltic Sea to climate change

23 March 2021, 13.30–16.00 MSK, programme PDF

How to increase urban resilience from the water sector side? The session co-organized by the BSR WATER platform will emphasize the joint regional efforts to the climate change adaptation on different levels.

Opening with an overview of the climate change effect on the environment and human activities from HELCOM, the session will continue into the presentations of local and regional trends, goals and best practices.

Union of the Baltic Cities Sustainable Cities Commission will present the climate adaptation-related signals, identified challenges and aims for its Sustainability Action Programme 2022–2030. Within the work on the Programme's development, one of the key identified focuses for the cities has been the stormwater management. Based on the surveys and interviews collected in the framework of BSR WATER, the City of Riga will present one of the outputs developed in the platform: recommendations for the sustainable stormwater management.

Further, several UBC Member Cities that contributed to the development of these recommendations – St. Petersburg, Gdansk, Lahti, Helsinki, Turku – will introduce their best practices, both for stormwater as well as for other sides of the urban water cycle.

Smart water management: regional strategies, best practices and expertise exchange from the BSR WATER platform

24 March 2021, 10.00–14.30 MSK, programme PDF

The workshop organized by BSR WATER for the stakeholders in the region will focus on the efficienty, circularity and safety of the water sector, bringing instruments and experiences accumulated in the platform.

The first part of the workshop will present two BSR WATER outputs that are currently being finalized: Pallet of solutions for nutrient recycling and micropollutants in sewage waters and Water-Sludge-Energy Model for cooperation. Based on the presentations of these, highlighting the circular potential and opportunities for the BSR water sector, the discussion will open for all interested experts to contribute on the topic and what is needed for its successfull implementation.

The second part will introduce the Baltic Smart Water Hub portal, with invited experts presenting practices and solutions for smart water management and operation, from calculating carbon emissions of water utilities and cooperating with different stakeholders, to bringing nature-based solutions for the urban stormwater planning and treating industrial wastewaters.

Generic information

Baltic Sea Day Forum, the key platform for the environmental dialogue at the regional and global level, has been held in Saint Petersburg since 2000. The Forum is coordinated by the Government of St. Petersburg and the State Company “Mineral” (national coordinator of the HELCOM activities in the Russian Federation), with support from HELCOM, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, and the Committee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety of St. Petersburg.