Climate change affects the water cycle of the Baltic Sea catchment basin, and adaptation will be required in the future. The extent to which the Baltic Sea region will be affected by changing hydrological conditions, and what the best adaptation strategies are, is an issue of open discussion. The workshop aims to bring together scientists to overcome the barriers in hydrological studies, including monitoring, modelling and forecasting. Both water quantity and quality issues will be discussed.

BONUS RETURN, represented by Jari Koskiaho and Sirkka Tattari from the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), will present results based on a recent study titled, The effect of sampling frequency and strategy on water quality modelling driven by high-frequency monitoring data in a boreal catchment.

The study demonstrates that more attention should be paid to the calibration data as a source of uncertainty in model predictions. It also provides evidence for either a wider adoption of modern sensors providing high-frequency data, or for increasing the grab sampling frequency to reduce the uncertainty of loading estimates, particularly in rivers with flashy flow regime such as the Vantaanjoki River. The main objective of the study was to evaluate six years of continuous, high-frequency water quality monitoring data set from a case study carried out in a medium-sized, boreal catchment in southern Finland to be used as a source for the calibration and testing of the Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT).