SokyH2O: Research and Conservation of Water Resources in the Sokyriany Community
The project aimed to improve water literacy, strengthen community partnerships, and inspire long-term care for freshwater resources.
The project covered the Sokyriany community, including the territory of Khotynskyi National Nature Park in the Chernivtsi region.
Activities included field research, laboratory analysis, and the use of digital tools, through which students monitored water quality in local water bodies and created open datasets. All student outputs are publicly available in Ukrainian and English on the ProBleu project platform.
Implementation period: September 2025 – March 2026.
The project was implemented by students and teachers of Selyshchany Lyceum, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Network of Eco-Stations and the Komariv Cape on Bakota Eco-Station, with financial support provided by the ProBleu Project. Project partners include the Sokyriany City Council and Khotynskyi National Nature Park.
MATERIALS CREATED WITHIN THE PROJECT:
Selyshchany Lyceum became the third educational institution from Ukraine to join the Network of European Blue Schools (NEBS) — an educational initiative of the European Union that brings together schools from different countries working on topics related to the ocean, water resources, biodiversity, and sustainable development.
The Network is part of the EU4Ocean Coalition, is funded by the European Commission, and is coordinated by the European Marine Science Educators Association (EMSEA). As of the end of last year, the Network included 984 schools. Only three schools from Ukraine are members of the Network, including Selyshchany Lyceum.
The certificate and the status of "Associated Member" are granted to schools from countries outside the European Union. This represents full membership, providing schools with the same access to all opportunities, partnerships, resources, and benefits offered by the Network as other European educational institutions.
More than 12 km of direct engagement with nature — this is the new eco-trail of the SokyH2O project, "Along the Paths of Healing Springs".
- Route type: ecological, educational, and interpretive.
- Mode of travel: hiking.
- Region: Chernivtsi Oblast, Sokyriany Territorial Community.
- Location: the surroundings of the villages of Selyshche and Bratanivka, the territory and adjacent areas of Khotyn National Nature Park, and the Molodiivskyi Yar Landscape Reserve.
- Number of stops: 14.
- Duration: 4–5 hours (including stops).
- Route length: 12.5 km.
- Target audience: school pupils, students, teachers, local community members, tourists, and families with children.
A short video guide for students on how to conduct water monitoring in aquatic ecosystems, created within the SokyH2O project.
During the implementation of the project, 16 school students together with adult mentors carried out comprehensive monitoring of water quality and biodiversity in 14 water bodies within the community. Based on the research results, a structured digital database was developed, which includes:
• physicochemical water quality parameters (pH, temperature, transparency, dissolved oxygen content, nitrates, etc.);
• bioindication results (presence and diversity of indicator macroinvertebrate species);
• photographic documentation of the condition of water bodies;
• geospatial referencing of research sites.
The research results can be accessed via the LINK.
You can also review additional materials (in Ukrainian and English) via the link: