PortXL startups Fregata Space and Clewat team up to carry out monitoring during cleaning of the Kuti lagoon in Croatia

Barely two weeks after meeting each other, two start-ups taking part of the PortXL acceleration program found a project where they could help each other and that is what happened. The Kuti lagoon has high levels of sedimentation caused by the presence of Myriophyllum heterophyllum and Egeria densa, which are considered invasive species in Europe.

These species have spread in recent years in the Neretva valley, mainly along Lake Kuti, causing impacts on the ecosystem, which are reflected in significant damage to the preservation of the fauna and flora of the area, not to mention the loss of biodiversity of the native species of the lagoon, as well as the decline of tourism, and thus the local economy.

Clewat is a Finnish company that has been working hard since September to contribute to the reduction of pollution levels in the Krocanj. The company uses state-of-the-art technology to remove invasive species by means of a suction mechanism on the surface, thus restoring the lagoon's balance. Its technology can extract up to 200 kilograms of grass from Lake Kuti per minute. In the last extraction, more than 100,000 kg of Myriophyllum heterophyllum and Egeria densa were collected.

Furthermore, with the support of Fregata Space's high-tech platform, it was possible to determine the water quality status of the lagoon. The process involved the development of an algorithm to determine the water quality status, which included five environmental variables, including chlorophyll-a concentration, dissolved organic matter, dissolved organic carbon, turbidity and cyanobacteria. The water quality index indicated that the lagoon on 6 September was dominated by poor water quality caused by the presence of these invasive species, accounting for more than 88% of the variability in the data.

Clewat and Fregata Space have the same goal: to counteract the pollution of all bodies of water to help create a sustainable world with greater opportunities.

Source: Fregata Space