Happy World Lake day!
The event, held annually on 27th August, is a new UN observance recognising the vital role lakes play in supporting freshwater, biodiversity, livelihoods and climate resilience.
Today is UN World Lake Day. The event, held annually on 27th August, is a new UN observance recognising the vital role lakes play in supporting freshwater, biodiversity, livelihoods and climate resilience. Established in 2024, the day calls attention to the growing pressures on lakes from pollution, overuse and climate change, and promotes their conservation, restoration and sustainable management.
To mark the day, we are delighted to share the third episode of the FutureLakes podcast.
The podcast offers a behind-the-scenes tour of the people and places at the core of this work.
Most of Europe’s lakes are still officially classed as failing – and yet the scientists who’ve spent decades beside these waters tell a more hopeful, more complicated story. So how do we actually know whether restoration is working? What gets lost when a single failing measure marks a whole lake as a failure? And, crucially, who is going to pay to bring our lakes back?
In this third episode, we meet two researchers from the FutureLakes project who have spent years trying to measure success – not just in nitrogen and phosphorus, but in birdlife, swimming, jobs, carbon and euros.
Lilith Kramer (Deltares) draws on a synthesis of six demonstration lakes to explain why real recovery is often hidden by EU scorecards, and why hope and complexity go hand in hand. Environmental economist Najla Kamergi (SEMIDE) makes the case for lakes’ “bankability” – and asks what we risk when we put a price on nature.
You can also listen to the podcast – and the rest of the series – through RSS, Spotify, Apple and Amazon.
This blog post was first published on The Freshwater blog on 27.08.26: What’s a lake worth? Measuring success and funding the future of lake restoration | The Freshwater Blog
Image: Tatiana Syrikova/ Pexels Creative Commons