BTO Implementation Awards from the expert jury and public for Nature Recovery from Nitrogen

The two BTO Implementation Awards were presented to the winners at the BTO Festival Day on 8 June. Thirteen research projects were nominated and three were selected by the expert jury. The BTO Implementation Award rewards successful collaboration between employees of drinking water companies or Vewin and KWR researchers in which knowledge transfer has led to application in practice. The winner of the jury award in 2023 was the project Nature Recovery from Nitrogen from Waternet, Dunea, PWN, Brabant Water, Evides, Vitens and KWR. Together, the researchers from these organisations looked at which measures in nature areas can be used to counteract the effects of nitrogen deposited from the air. It was found that ploughing dry heaths did not work, but encouraging wind dispersal in dunes turns out to be a good way of restoring dune grasslands. In the Amsterdam Water Supply Dunes, thanks to the creation of some 300 wind dispersal pits with calcium-rich sand, the wild pansy and the Queen of Spain fritillary are on the rise again. This measure has now been used successfully on several occasions in the Netherlands and other countries. This is an important instrument for water utilities, which not only need dune areas to produce drinking water but also want to take good care of nature and promote biodiversity. The public, which had the opportunity to vote via the internet until the day before the BTO Festival, was in complete agreement with the expert jury. Double congratulations go to Mark van Til and Luc Geelen (both Waternet), Harrie van der Hagen and Maarten Wering (Dunea), Jeroen Groenendijk and Hubert Kivit (PWN), Martin de Haan (Brabant Water) and Camiel Aggenbach and Edu Dorland (KWR), who executed this BTO project.

The winners of the BTO 2023 Implementation Awards from both the expert jury and the public: Nature Recovery from Nitrogen, presented to Martin de Haan (KWR), Luc Geelen (Waternet), Camiel Aggenbach (KWR) and Edu Dorland (KWR)

Do you want to know more about the three nominated projects? You can watch the short videos made in response to the nominations here. And, of course, the winners were also presented with a bouquet.