308 years of living at the edge of the Baltic Sea:

Management in St.-Petersburg

Aladin N.V. & Plotnikov I.S.

World Water Week

Seminar "Living on the Edge: Hilltop-2-Ocean (H2O) Management in Coastal Cities“

August 24, 2011

Time: 14:00 - 17:30, Room T4

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6058

St-Petersburg is situated at the Eastern coast of the Baltic Sea where Neva River enters it. This river is starting its way to the Baltic Sea from the largest European lake Ladoga.

St.-Petersburg was founded at

May 27, 1703 on Zayachiy Island by Russian tsar

Peter I

Monument “Tsar Carpenter”

on Admiralteiskaya embankment.

The same monument is also in

Zaandam, the Nethrlands.

Vladimir Putin (from 2000 till 2008)

Dmitry Medvedev (from 2008 till now)

Boris Yeltzin(from 1991 till 1999)

3 presidents of Russian Federation

Anatoliy Sobchak1991-1996

Vladimir Yakovlev1996-2003

Valentina Matvienko2003-2011

One mayor and 2 governors of St. Petersburg

The largest floodsMap of flooded areas

Since the origin floods were the main threat to St. Petersburg

The most catastrophic flood

September 19, 1824

Water elevation 4.1 m

• Since 1703 till now in St.-Petersburg there were 324 floods (> 160 cm).

• From them 210 were more than 210 cm.

• The largest floods occurred in 1824 (421 cm), 1924 (380 cm), 1777 (321 cm), 1955 (293 cm) and 1975 (281 cm).

Floods in St.-Petersburg

The St. Petersburg Flood Prevention Facility Complex

Water gates in the dam of St. Petersburg Flood Prevention Facility Complex

Flood Prevention Facility Complex

• Full length of this complex - 25.4 km.

• It can prevent floods up to 5.4 m.

• Flood Prevention Facility Complex includes 11 dams, 6 water gates and 2 openings for ships.

• On the top there is six-lane highway – a part of St.-Petersburg Ring Road.

• The project was begun in 1979, and construction continued through 1995, at which point the dam was around 70% complete, when due to difficulties obtaining financing after the fall of the Soviet Union the project was suspended until 2005, when Chairman of the Russian Government Vladimir Putin ordered its resumption.

• Construction was completed in 2011, and the opening of the complex was on 12 August 2011. At the opening ceremony, Chairman of the Russian Government Vladimir Putin said that the completion of the project was a "historic event" and meant that St. Petersburg "is not just protected from floods, the ecological situation also improved."

Inwash of new territory

Buildings on such territoryProject of Maritime Facade

Project of Maritime Facade

• It is a project of widening Vasilyevsky Island to the Neva Bay.

• It will be inwashed new territory about 400 ha for new marine passenger terminal, office buildings, dwelling houses and other objects.

• Because of inwashing activity St. Petersburg is constantly growing conquering the Baltic Sea.

Navy city of Kronstadt on Kotlin Island

One of the forts

Originally St. Petersburg was not only the capital of Russian Empire but also was the center of origin of Russian Navy and the largest marine fortress in Russia.

Nowadays due to disarmament old forts and fortresses are used for other nonmilitary purposes.

St.-Petersburg in 1849

St.-Petersburg in the 1st half of XVIII century

Expansion of St. Petersburgin XVIII-XIX centuries

St.-Petersburg in 1903 St.-Petersburg in 1997

Expansion of St. Petersburg in XX century

• Among cities of the world with over one million people, St. Petersburg is the northernmost.

• It is Russia's second largest city after Moscow with 4.87 million inhabitants.

• The area of St. Petersburg city proper is 605.8 km2. The area of the federal subject is 1,439 km2, which contains St. Petersburg proper, nine municipal towns – (Kolpino, Krasnoye Selo, Kronstadt, Lomonosov, Pavlovsk, Petergof, Pushkin, Sestroretsk, Zelenogorsk) – and twenty-one municipal settlements.

Peterhof. Grand Palace and the Grand Cascade

Since the origin St. Petersburg became not only important political, military and economic center of Russian Empire but also

a well known center of Russian diplomacy.

Former Imperial residences in the suburbs of St. Petersburg till nowadays continue to host diplomatic meetings.

Strelna. Constantine Palace during G8 Summit, July 15-17, 2006

Oil terminal near PrimorskUst-Luga port under construction

St.-Petersburg commercial portSt.-Petersburg passenger marine terminal

St. Petersburg aquatic transport infrastructure is keeping growing

• St.-Petersburg passenger marine terminal was opened in 1982 for passenger cruise and ferry boats.

• St.-Petersburg commercial port is the largest on in the Northwest of Russia. Freight turnover in the first half of 2010 was 26.35 million tons.

• Construction of Ust-Luga port began in 1993. Now it has terminals for transshipment of bulk cargoes such as timber, coal, sulfur, etc.

• Oil terminal near Primorsk is one the most modern not only in Russia but in Europe. It has certificate for environment management ISO-14001.

Since St. Petersburg was erected the problem of drinkable water supply for the city became very serious. Its history is shown today in a Museum complex "The Universe of Water"

Vodokanal of St.-Petersburg • “Vodokanal of St.Petersburg” provides drinking

water to the population of 4,600,000 people as well as to companies and organizations of the city - 17,500 customers.

• The main water source is the Neva River; more than 96% of water is taken from the Neva and channeled to 5 major waterworks.

• Since 2007, Vodokanal applies a unique two-stage process of overall water disinfection at St. Petersburg waterworks. This process is based on a highly effective but safe chemical – sodium hypochlorite (chemical method) and UV water treatment (physical method).

At waterworks

Crayfish is monitoring the toxic level of St.-Petersburg drinking water source

• Vodokanal is proud of its unique system of water quality biomonitoring - diagnostics of the functional status of crayfish and fish.

• The method developed by the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Environmental Safety Research Institute consists in measuring the local crayfish cardiorythm and analysing the behavior of fish. If the water from the Neva contains toxic substances, the heart rate of crayfish increases, and the behavior of fish changes significantly. Now, the biomonitoring system is used at all waterworks in the city.

• The “staff” of the Main Waterworks includes 12 crayfish. Their working schedule: two days in the aquarium under supervision, then four days of rest and active eating.

At the end of XIX century St. Petersburg faced a problem of wastewater cleaning. The problem is solved only in the beginning of XXI century.

• In 2008 volume of treated wastewater was 821.7 millions m3.

• The Saint-Petersburg wastewater disposal system comprises: sewage networks – 8099.4 km, tunnel collectors – 229.12 km, sewage pumping stations (SPS) – 134, wastewater treatment plants – 21.

• The biggest wastewater treatment plants in St. Petersburg are: Central, Northern and South-West wastewater treatment plants.

• St. Petersburg is the first megalopolis in the world where the problem of wastewater sludge utilization is solved.

At poultry factory

Since St. Petersburg was erected the problem of food supply for the city became very serious. In order to decrease import local business are proliferating.

At pig-breeding complex At meat and milk production farm

A lot of big breeding complexes and meat and milk farms appeared around St. Petersburg in XX century.

Nord Stream gas pipeline

Nord Stream gas pipeline• The Nord Stream offshore pipeline is being ordered and will

be operated by Nord Stream AG, a joint company owned by Gazprom, BASF and E.ON, and N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie.

• It runs from Vyborg compressor station at Portovaya Bay along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to Greifswald in Germany. The length of the subsea pipeline will be 1,222 kilometres.

• The pipeline will have two parallel legs, each with capacity of 27.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year. Pipes have a diameter of 1,220 millimetres and a working pressure of 220 bars.

• Construction was officially launched on 9 April 2010 with a ceremony, which was attended by the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The laying of the first line was completed on 4 May 2011 (the last pipe put in place), while all underwater works on the first line were completed on 21 June 2011.

• Journalists reported that the 1st testing of gas pipeline will be September 1, 2011.

Project proposals of navigation canals between Ladoga Lake and Gulf of Finland I order to protect St. Petersburg and Neva River again boat accidents

Initially there were 5 projects1. Along Vuoksi River.

2. Fully artificial canal at the north of St.-Petersburg.

3. Along the course of rivers Volkhov, Oredezh and Luga.

4. Along the course of rivers Volkhov, Shelon and Luga.

5. Along the course of rivers Volkhov, Shelon, Chreha and Luga.

• In 2008 it was announced that authorities of Leningrad Oblast chose the southern way to Ust-Luga port along rivers Svir, Volkhov, Tigoda and Luga. The canal will be about 340 km long and 80 m wide.

• In 2009 deputy governor of Leningrad Oblast informed that realization of the project in the nearest future is highly unlikely.

• Opponents of the canal more than once declared that this project is Utopian explaining attempts of its realization by desire of some persons for making a profit from very expensive project.

• Skepticism is strengthened by very complicated technical characteristics of the project: it will be needed full reconstruction of almost all bridges over rivers included in the canal.

Global Warming threatens with flooding St.-Petersburg but we

don’t like to discuss this problem in my present presentation.

Thank you for your attention