Tallinn, Estonia
City population: 390369
Duration: unknown – unknown
Implementation status: Unknown
Scale: Meso-scale: Regional, metropolitan and urban level
Project area: unknown
Type of area: Other
Last updated: April 2022

Paljassaare peninsula hosts the Paljassaare special conservation area and is partly a nature reserve and partly used to accommodate a wastewater treatment facility (ref 3). The leftovers from the treatment facility, processes of urbanisation and cyanobacteria blooms from the Baltic sea are largely influencing the fragile ecosystem of the peninsula through eutrophication. By this, the different cycles and ecosystems (both natural and urban) got more and more intertwined. ‘Perpetuum Mobile’ project aims to rebalance the urban metabolism of Tallinn city with the ecological processes on the Paljassaare peninsula through natural de-eutrophication of the area (ref 4).

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Blue infrastructure
  • Coastlines
  • Coastal wetland, mangroves and salt marshes

Key challenges

  • Coastal resilience and marine protection (SDG 14)
  • Marine and coastal biodiversity protection
  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Habitat and biodiversity restoration
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Water management (SDG 6)
  • Improvements to water quality
  • Sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12)
  • Sustainable consumption
  • Sustainable production

Focus

Coastal landscape management or protection, Ecological restoration of ecosystems, Protection of natural ecosystems, Monitoring and maintenance of habitats and/or biodiversity

Project objectives

1. Opening up the closed-in marshland 2. Eutrophication of the marshland will be put to a halt and ecological values will be preserved 3. Suur-Paljasaare will become an isolated bird reserve, an ornithological park on a pan-European scale 4. Väike-Paljassaare will be transformed into a productive bio-educational island with recreational functions 5. The island is intended to function as a landscape machine that over time will de-eutrophicate the area 6. The leftovers from the wastewater treatment facility are used to fertilise tree and crop plantations on the island 7. The output of the plantations is used to feed and green the city of Tallinn and give a new range of spatial and functional experiences 8. A huge bio-digester is to be implemented: This facility transforms the cyanobacteria blooms (algea) from the Baltic sea to bio-gas for the city. (ref. 4)

Implementation activities

1. Opening up the closed-in marshland. 2. Eutrophication of the marshland will be put to a halt and ecological values will be preserved. 3. Suur-Paljasaare will become an isolated bird reserve, an ornithological park on a pan-European scale. 4. Väike-Paljassaare will be transformed into a productive bio-educational island with recreational functions. 6. The leftovers from the wastewater treatment facility are used to fertilise tree and crop plantations on the island. 7. The output of the plantations is used to feed and green the city of Tallinn and give a new range of spatial and functional experiences. 8. A huge bio-digester is to be implemented (ref. 4)

Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities

Biodiversity conservation:

  • Means for conservation governance
  • Manage biological resources for conservation and sustainable use

Biodiversity restoration:

  • Rehabilitate and restore damaged or destroyed ecosystems
  • Restore species (native, endangered, or unspecified)
  • Restore valued species
  • Clear and control invasive alien species

Main beneficiaries

  • Citizens or community groups

Governance

Management set-up

  • Led by non-government actors

Type of initiating organisation

  • Private sector/corporate actor/company

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Other

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

A project envisioned by private architects and urban designers for a city-level competition (ref. 1, 3). Tallinn Architecture Biennale Vision Competition “Re-metabolizing Paljassaare” invited architects, scientists and artists from across the world to define a new urbanity for the unique Paljassaare Peninsula in Tallinn (ref. 3)

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Unknown
... a national policy or strategy? Unknown
... a local policy or strategy? Unknown

Financing

Total cost

Unknown

Source(s) of funding

  • Unknown

Type of funding

  • Unknown

Non-financial contribution

Unknown

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Water management and blue areas
  • Improved water quality
  • Green space and habitat
  • Increased green space area
  • Reduced biodiversity loss
  • Increased number of species present

Economic impacts

  • Unknown

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Health and wellbeing
  • Gain in activities for recreation and exercise
  • Education
  • Increased support for education and scientific research
  • Increased knowledge of locals about local nature

Type of reported impacts

Expected impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Unknown

Presence of indicators used in reporting

No evidence in public records

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

No evidence in public records

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No evidence in public records

References