Networking lake observatories in Europe: an overview

The successful establishment of the NETLAKE community addressed the overarching aim of COST Action ES1201: to build a network of sites and individuals to support the development and deployment of sensor-based systems in lakes and reservoirs across Europe. This is now leading to new and dynamic collaborations within Europe, and indeed globally through GLEON and other global networks. NETLAKE has built capacity in all its member countries by strengthening links between existing collaborators, and facilitating communications between scientists and citizens’ groups, water managers, and small medium enterprises. The NETLAKE meetings, Training Schools, and the STSMs in particular, have been the backbone of this work, focused on using high frequency monitoring (HFM) data from lakes and reservoirs to produce high quality science outputs. Through the four science Working Groups (WGs), the Action has also launched a metadatabase of sites with HFM platforms (WG1), published a set of best practice guidelines on the practicalities of deploying and maintaining automatic stations on lakes and reservoirs (WG1), developed a set of factsheets on data analysis tools (WG2), developed and launched a cross-European citizen science project on decomposition and on micro-plastics in lakes (WG3), and worked closely with managers on a set of management related case studies (WG4). It has also produced a review of the use of HFM for the management of lakes and reservoirs (WG4), while, in addition eight papers linked to NETLAKE have been published, four other submitted and seven are in preparation through both WGs and STSMs. Two large-scale EU level projects involving NETLAKE partnerships have now been awarded, while fifteen projects linked to NETLAKE have been funded at national level. Monitoring systems have also been deployed at eight new sites across Europe. The extent of this collaborative work, which has involved a community of over 100 participants in 26 countries, has ensured a strong foundation for the network into the future.