Until now NICE made significant strides toward its goal of advancing innovative Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in various urban contexts addressing urban water management challenges. During this time, NICE pilots (15) were designed, constructed, & integrated in 10 urban sites across Europe & beyond. These systems, such as vertical gardens, constructed wetl&s, & rain gardens, will be used for efficient treatment of various types of water—stormwater, combined sewer overflows, greywater, wastewater, & river water. The pilots have been designed incorporating results & outcomes from research at lab scale on different innovations. More specifically, the innovations explored & developed until now include:
- Substrate material capable of adsorbing nearly 100% of certain emerging contaminants from wastewater, & able to recover phosphorus for plant us.
- Identification of microorganism capable of reducing 90% of emerging contaminants, intended for integration into bioaugmented NbS.
- Efficient green walls designed to treat greywater under stressful conditions.
- Improved conditions for operating green walls to enhance the efficiency of greywater treatment.
- Enhanced aeration conditions for CW used in combined sewer overflow & stormwater treatment, energy savings, & improved water quality.
- Identification of plants with biocidal potential.
- Optimization of hybrid constructed wetl&s for efficient treatment of river & wastewater.
In addition, strategies, designs, & operational guidelines for full-scale NICE systems have been defined, enhancing their ability to address pollutants & advance sustainable urban water management. The main outcomes from this work, as well as those from full-scale systems, will be included into guidelines, a task that has recently begun. These guidelines will also include results on environmental, social impact, health, & cost-effectiveness of all NICE systems. Throughout the project, Life Cycle Cost, Life Cycle Assessment & Social Life Cycle Assessment have been done. The guidelines will support NICE portfolio of 100 innovative NbS cases identified worldwide, promoting dissemination of these solutions, which was completed during this period. In alignment with this, significant progress was made in developing an open source modeling software, including NICERXL tool, which now provides all necessary tools for testing by potential stakeholders. In outreach & public participation, until now, impactful activities included 29 clustering & participatory events such as NICE Cities Panel, which brought together NICE stakeholders, scientists, policymakers, entrepreneurs, & citizens interested in NICE solutions. This contributed to more than 8,000 visits to the project’s website & its social media channels. From a funding & exploitation perspective, activities & strategies to increase new business opportunities have been conducted, focusing on funding types & sources, intellectual property rights, & SWOT analyses.
