Environmental Impact Assessment of the St Petersburg Flood Protection Barrier

Period:	01/2002-09/2002
Location:	Sint Petersburg, Russia
Client:	Ministery of Construction, Gosstroy, Russian Federation

assignment/short description

The city of St Petersburg, with 5 million inhabitants, is located in the delta of the Neva River at the eastern edge of Neva Bay. The city is nearly annually affected by floods (storm surges) initiating from the Baltic Sea, which travel eastwards through the Gulf of Finland, to Neva Bay, and finally inundate the city. Since 1992, the city of St Petersburg has been eager to complete the partially constructed St Petersburg Flood Protection Barrier. The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federaion has requested the European Bank for Reconstruction and Develpment (EBRD) to participate in the funding of this project. As part of the feasibility study of the project, the EBRD required an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to be conducted. A NEDECO consortium with Deltares (Delft Hydraulics) as leading partner, together with the Finnish Environmental Institute, was selected to conduct the study.

The EIA focused on identifying impacts of the completed Barrier and of the construction activities on the hydrodynamics, water quality and hydro-biology of the Gulf of Finland and Neva Bay water system in which the Barrier is located. A large number of Russian scientific experts with extensive knowledge of the local area were actively involved in this assessment. Mitigation measures were defined and a long-term Environmental Action Plan was developed. Providing information to the general public was an important component of the EIA and as such two public consultation meetings were organised as well as an exhibition covering all aspects of the Barrier completion project.