In advance of the 2027 symposium we are gathering information from the community about preferences for your participation. We hope that many will choose to join in person in Lahti, but we will offer remote participation if we see there is significant interest in this option.
Therefore please visit our very brief survey to indicate how you would be most likely to participate. Add your answer before 31 August 2026, so that we can plan ahead. Please respond only once. The survey will not collect any personal details, only a summary of the preferences.
More information about registration and abstract submission will follow in Fall 2026 after we have decided on the format of the symposium. Looking forward to your responses. Greetings from the organizing committee!
The organizing committee would like to thank all participants once more for your contributions to a successful symposium. We hope you have returned home safely! Please note that the recordings of all 3 days are visible via the online platform until 5. July 2024. The feedback form on the platform also closes on the same date, please add your comments to help us improve the symposium for the 2027 edition. Please also contact us if you do not wish for the recording of your presentation to be archived for open access viewing.
Participants of Lahti Lakes 2024 on the shore of Lake Vesijärvi
We hope you have safely arrived in Lahti in time for the symposium. A couple of last-minute updates for everyone:
Google maps library of key locations
We have made a shared library of key locations in Google Maps. Please access it here.
Lahti Lakes 2024 opening address from Jenni Jäänheimo
The opening address of the symposium on Monday will be given be Jenni Jäänheimo, senior specialist in water resources and marine protection at the Finnish Ministry of the Environment. Jenni has co-ordinated the Finnish government’s €69 million Water Protection Program 2019-2023. We are delighted to welcome her to Lahti to open the symposium.
Get together at Santa Fe bar and terrace from 19.00 Sunday
We are meeting for an informal social on Sunday evening at Santa Fe bar and terrace in the center of Lahti from 19.00 on Sunday. The location can be found in the Google maps library shared above. Hope to see you there!
The Lahti Lakes 2024 organizing team has been busy getting ready for our symposium next week. Here are some updates on what has been going on and what to looking forward to during the 3-day event.
Welcome to the Sibelius Hall
The symposium takes place in Lahti’s famous Sibelius Hall. The building was formerly a lumber mill on the shoreline of Lake Vesijärvi. Since a major renovation in 2000 it now hosts many national and international events including concerts and symposia. Read more here. We are booked into the Puusepän sali (Capenter’s hall) which is being specially arranged for the hybrid format of Lahti Lakes. Pics below courtesy of our partners Eventum. We have approximately 100 attendees of whom over 80 will be present in Lahti, with the rest joining us via the online platform.
Abstract book published
The abstract book for Lahti Lakes 2024 was sent to participants on 16 May. You can find the pdf below. Hard copies of the abstract book will be provided to participants on arrival at the Sibelius Hall.
All participants of the symposium, whether onsite or online, can follow a live stream of the event via the online platform hosted by our partners Liveto. The platform also allows participants to view the poster presentations as pdf files, and to interact with the online participants via social rooms. Furthermore, online poster presenters will have video rooms enabled, allowing participation during the poster session. An accompanying event app will allow interaction between onsite and online participants through chat functions throughout the symposium. The event app will be accessible to onsite participants via a QR-code on your name badge.
PAID PARTICIPANTS WILL RECEIVE INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT LOGGING IN TO THE ONLINE PLATFORM BY FRIDAY 31 MAY!
Note: the live stream of the event will be recorded by our partners Videomakers. During the event, each day’s recording is visible on the online platform until overprinted by the following day. After the event, the recordings of all 3 days are visible on the platform for 1 month. Following this, we would like to make the individual presentations publicly available as short videos on the University of Helsinki video archive, as done for the 2021 symposium. If you do not wish your presentation to be archived in this way, please contact the organizers.
Panel discussion hosted by WWQA Ecosystems workstream
The Monday afternoon program includes a 40-minute panel discussion hosted by the World Water Quality Alliance (WWQA) Ecosystems Workstream. The theme of the discussion will be “Embedding lakes into the global sustainability agenda: where to next?“. The panel will focus on the route towards implementing the goals of the 2023 White Paper published by the workstream, which is accessible here. In particular, we will discuss the creation of a Global Coalition for Lakes and development of the Global Community of Practice in lake restoration. Members of the panel include:
Bryan Spears Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh, UK
Priyanka Jamwal Ashoka Trust for research in Ecology and the Environment, Bengaluru, India
Maíra Mucci Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands
Zhengwen Liu Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
Kenneth Irvine IHE Delft, Netherlands
In advance of the discussion, we will publish a draft of a concept note entitled Proposal for a Global Coalition on Sustainable Lake Management, outlining recent developments and a proposed roadmap for future actions in this area.
Social program
Summer in Lahti is beautiful and we intend to make the most of the long days with evening social events!
Sunday: Informal get-together in Lahti (from 19.00).
We will meet on the terrace of Santa Fe bar and restaurant in the central square of Lahti. No official program, just fun to catch up with everyone again. All welcome!
Monday: Reception at Pro Puu gallery (from 19.00)
Immediately after the poster session we will cross the road from Sibelius Hall to the Pro Puu gallery. The gallery is hosting a collection of artwork and photography inspired by Lake Vesijärvi at the time of our symposium. We will have drinks and snacks and hear an official welcome address from a representative of City of Lahti.
Tuesday: Fieldtrip to Lake Vesijärvi and Salpausselkä Geopark (from 14.00)
At around 13.45 we will walk together from Sibelius Hall to the Lahti Harbour, where we board a cruise boat for our fieldtrip. We will have a tour of beautiful Lake Vesijärvi, known as the “living room” of Lahti and the focus of lake restoration efforts for several decades. During the tour, we will have drinks and snacks and hear from Kati Komulainen of the Salpausselkä UNESCO Geopark. Lake Vesijärvi forms part of this newly-recognized park (see map below) which represents a unique set of Quaternary geological sights in the Lahti area, including the famed Salpausselkä ice marginal formations that bound Vesijärvi to the north and south.
Tuesday: Dinner at Kommodori restaurant (from 19.00)
Folllowing the fieldtrip eveyone is welcome for the symposium dinner at Kommodori restaurant. This lovely spot is located on a small island in Lake Vesijärvi and has great views over the lake and surrounding landscape. During dinner, we will be entertained by local musicians Viljami Viippola and Jenny Muhonen on piano and cello.
There are numerous options for hotels in Lahti during the symposium. Please check visitlahti.fi for a complete list. Lahti Lakes 2024 has partnership deals for reduced prices at the Lahden Seurahuone and Greenstar hotels as follows:
Solo Sokos Hotel Lahden Seurahuone
Reservation Code: BLAHTILAKES2024 (note: “B” is required, i.e. not a typo)
128 EUR / Standard single room / night
147 EUR / Loft Standard single room / night
162 EUR / Loft Supreme single room / night
153 EUR / Standard twin room / night
172 EUR Loft Standard twin room / night
187 EUR Loft Supreme twin room / night
Rates include breakfast during normal opening hours, wireless internet access (Wi-Fi), VAT and guest sauna (when available). We reserve the right to change rates if VAT changes.
Rates include S-Card benefits.
Guests are entitled to the rooms from 3:00 PM on the day of arrival to 12:00 (noon) on day the of departure.
All reservations from the allotment need to be guaranteed with a credit card or paid upon booking. The last free cancellation date for each individual reservation is 7 days prior to the arrival. We recommend making a reservation by phone or online. Kindly note that due to security reasons credit card details should not be sent via email.
(Choose the city Lahti and dates, code is entered in ”Promotion code or company code”)
Sokoshotels sales +358300 870 000 or Solo Sokos Hotel Lahden Seurahuone, puh. 020 1234 655, email. seurahuone.lahti@sokoshotels.fi
Note: 70 rooms are reserved at the above rates until 5 May 2024. After this date, unreserved rooms will be released to open booking in stages. The last possible date to book with above rates, assuming availability of the chosen room, is 26 May 2024.
Greenstar hotel
Reservation code: LahtiLakes
95 EUR / Standard single room / night
107 EUR / Standard twin room / night
Rates include breakfast, usual services and VAT charges. We reserve the right to change rates if VAT changes.
Rates are valid for bookings made until 1 May 2024.
The recorded presentations from authors giving consent have been uploaded to the University of Helsinki’s Unitube service here. Additional presentations are made available to participants of the symposium via a link sent by email.
Recorded oral presentations and sessions from Lahti Lakes 2021 will be uploaded onto the University of Helsinki’s Unitube video sharing service in the near future. We now ask all oral presenters to inform the organizing committee if they consent to their presentation being uploaded and if so in which of the following categories:
upload for unrestricted viewing
upload for access to symposium participants only
Please respond by 31.8.2021. If we do not receive your response, by default we will not upload your presentation.
Pre-registered participants should now visit the homepage of the meeting platform to pay the registration fee of €100 (+€3 service charge) and gain access to the platform. Undergraduate students may register for free.
Lahti Lakes 2021 will be hosted from the Videomakers studio in Lahti, with presentations both onsite and online. The organizing committee has now put together a draft program for the 3-day event. If you are a presenting participant, please see your scheduled time below and inform us immediately if you have a problem to make your presentation in the stated time slot. All times are given in Eastern European Summer Time EEST (UTC+3). Note that pre-recorded presentations are possible, but we prefer that you present live so that we can have a proper discussion after each talk. Therefore we have programmed the speakers with time zones in mind.
The program includes oral sessions and other pieces hosted from the studio, online chats following the oral sessions, and two fully-online poster sessions (see legend). Important: We invite all oral presenters from Finland to make their presentations directly from the studio in Lahti. Please inform us if you are not able to do this.
We will contact all participants about payment of the symposium fee during the coming weeks. The fee is €100 for regular participants. Student participants attend for free.
LAHTI LAKES 2027 