Understanding how lakes benefit people is just as important as monitoring their water quality. To strengthen this knowledge, researchers from the Lakes Go Digital project recently completed a three-day intensive training course “Freshwater Ecosystem Services – From Concept to Field: Assessment, Mapping and Application”, held in Latvia.
The training combined scientific theory with practical fieldwork, allowing participants to deepen their understanding of freshwater ecosystem services and their role in sustainable lake management. Throughout the course, researchers worked with internationally recognised methodologies, including the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES), and learned how to identify, assess and map the many benefits that healthy lakes provide to both people and nature.
During field exercises, participants applied ecological assessment methods, collected and interpreted environmental data, and explored how ecosystem service assessments can support spatial planning, water management and environmental decision-making.
The knowledge gained during the training directly supports the objectives of the Lakes Go Digital project. While smart buoys provide continuous real-time information about water quality, understanding ecosystem services helps researchers interpret these data in a broader ecological and societal context. Healthy lakes do far more than provide clean water—they regulate local climate, reduce flood risks, support biodiversity, store carbon, provide recreational opportunities and contribute to local identity and well-being.
By combining real-time monitoring technologies with ecosystem service assessment, the project is developing a more comprehensive approach to lake management. This integrated perspective enables municipalities to move beyond simply detecting environmental changes and better understand what those changes mean for people, nature and the long-term sustainability of freshwater ecosystems.
As Lakes Go Digital continues to build a cross-border real-time monitoring network across Latvia and Lithuania, strengthening scientific capacity remains a key investment in achieving smarter, more resilient and evidence-based freshwater management.
