Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EcoAdvance (Assessing and Consolidating Recent Advances on Freshwater Ecosystem Restoration)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-08-01 al 2023-10-31
The ultimate goal of the EcoAdvance project is to encourage more widespread and successful freshwater ecosystem restoration projects across Europe. We aim to achieve this by identifying factors most likely to drive and lead towards more successful projects, and by showcasing relevant models and good practice examples country by country across Europe.
To implement a restoration project, decisionmakers have to choose between the important and the urgent, the immediate and the strategic, the “low hanging fruit” and the “real solution”. They must identify how to use funds strategically and optimize their plans within the ecological, economic, social, cultural and political context. They must predict what will be most successful and have the greatest positive impact with the lowest unintended negative consequences.
EcoAdvance will guide decisionmakers by high¬lighting – EU country-by-country – the factors that will likely help or hinder project success (the Prone2Success checklist). EcoAdvance is develop¬ing a searchable library that showcases people (and projects) who have made it happen and who can provide guidance around the pitfalls, obstacles and risks with meaningful, relevant advice.
Hence EcoAdvance is looking for people and projects across Europe who have faced the freshwater restoration challenge. To help condense their experience into bite sized, accessible guidance for current and future practitioners, we have established online surveys and are starting to create showcases highlighting different people, their experiences and their projects.
The online surveys may be found through the project website (www.ecoadvance.eu) and are where people may share their views and experiences through either a simple survey, a more detailed personal survey and a place for sharing project experiences. With this information, drawn from practitioners across Europe, we can analyse responses and look for common factors that both enable and hinder restoration project success. This analysis can also then support future policy decisions to help enable greater restoration success.
By identifying people (from the reviews and surveys) and then following up for personal interviews, we are now also starting to create Showcases which highlight, country by country, topic by topic, personal experiences of restoration, including what worked and what did not.
For more information – and to participate in the consultation process – email info@ecoadvance.eu or register online directly at www.ecoadvance.eu
To implement a restoration project, decisionmakers have to choose between the important and the urgent, the immediate and the strategic, the “low hanging fruit” and the “real solution”. They must identify how to use funds strategically and optimize their plans within the ecological, economic, social, cultural and political context. They must predict what will be most successful and have the greatest positive impact with the lowest unintended negative consequences.
EcoAdvance will guide decisionmakers by high¬lighting – EU country-by-country – the factors that will likely help or hinder project success (the Prone2Success checklist). EcoAdvance is develop¬ing a searchable library that showcases people (and projects) who have made it happen and who can provide guidance around the pitfalls, obstacles and risks with meaningful, relevant advice.
Hence EcoAdvance is looking for people and projects across Europe who have faced the freshwater restoration challenge. To help condense their experience into bite sized, accessible guidance for current and future practitioners, we have established online surveys and are starting to create showcases highlighting different people, their experiences and their projects.
The online surveys may be found through the project website (www.ecoadvance.eu) and are where people may share their views and experiences through either a simple survey, a more detailed personal survey and a place for sharing project experiences. With this information, drawn from practitioners across Europe, we can analyse responses and look for common factors that both enable and hinder restoration project success. This analysis can also then support future policy decisions to help enable greater restoration success.
By identifying people (from the reviews and surveys) and then following up for personal interviews, we are now also starting to create Showcases which highlight, country by country, topic by topic, personal experiences of restoration, including what worked and what did not.
For more information – and to participate in the consultation process – email info@ecoadvance.eu or register online directly at www.ecoadvance.eu
The EcoAdvance workflow broadly comprises of a review phase, followed by a survey and analysis phase, and subsequently by showcase generation, creation of a Prone2Success checklist and identification of key points to support policy.
In Period 1 of the project we have implemented the review work, started the survey process and started showcase creation. Whilst the simple description above implies a sequential process, many of these activities overlaps and will run in parallel to some extent.
The project review phase, work comprised a series of actions including a review, country by country of River Basin Management Plans, a literature review, a review of key projects and initiatives and a review of freshwater restoration assessment frameworks. The aim of these activities was to establish & understand the current position of freshwater restoration and, most significantly, to identify people and projects for consultation, and potential showcasing.
A series of reports and deliverables have been produced under this review phase including:
(i) ‘Country Reports’ – country by country assessment of RBMPs identifying potential routes to people and projects, along with characteristic approaches to restoration projects in that country
(ii) D2-1: Factors affecting the success of restoration projects – An overview of the position for finding people & projects, including summaries of the Country Report findings, BIOEAST network consultation, ECOSTAT working group consultation, review of assessment frameworks and analysis of related networks, projects and initiatives.
(iii) D2-2: Bibliographic review – identifying key authors for potential consultation
(iv) D2-3: Preliminary Showcasing list – summarising potential people & project connections for showcase development
(v) D2-4: Preliminary list of factors driving success – an initial draft of factors forming the basis of the Prone2Success checklist
(vi) D2-5: Consultation Platform – online tools supporting the consultation process
For the Survey phase of work, we created an online registration system, plus simple survey and longer survey. The longer survey sought feedback on personal experience and project based experience.
For the Showcasing phase of work we created a structured online area for accessing showcases. Showcases will be searchable by country, focus, etc. The contents of a showcase are defined as including a short teaser video, a main interview (with expert, practitioner etc) and any supporting materials.
In Period 1 of the project we have implemented the review work, started the survey process and started showcase creation. Whilst the simple description above implies a sequential process, many of these activities overlaps and will run in parallel to some extent.
The project review phase, work comprised a series of actions including a review, country by country of River Basin Management Plans, a literature review, a review of key projects and initiatives and a review of freshwater restoration assessment frameworks. The aim of these activities was to establish & understand the current position of freshwater restoration and, most significantly, to identify people and projects for consultation, and potential showcasing.
A series of reports and deliverables have been produced under this review phase including:
(i) ‘Country Reports’ – country by country assessment of RBMPs identifying potential routes to people and projects, along with characteristic approaches to restoration projects in that country
(ii) D2-1: Factors affecting the success of restoration projects – An overview of the position for finding people & projects, including summaries of the Country Report findings, BIOEAST network consultation, ECOSTAT working group consultation, review of assessment frameworks and analysis of related networks, projects and initiatives.
(iii) D2-2: Bibliographic review – identifying key authors for potential consultation
(iv) D2-3: Preliminary Showcasing list – summarising potential people & project connections for showcase development
(v) D2-4: Preliminary list of factors driving success – an initial draft of factors forming the basis of the Prone2Success checklist
(vi) D2-5: Consultation Platform – online tools supporting the consultation process
For the Survey phase of work, we created an online registration system, plus simple survey and longer survey. The longer survey sought feedback on personal experience and project based experience.
For the Showcasing phase of work we created a structured online area for accessing showcases. Showcases will be searchable by country, focus, etc. The contents of a showcase are defined as including a short teaser video, a main interview (with expert, practitioner etc) and any supporting materials.
Results at the end of Period 1 are a collation of review work, along with initial survey responses and preliminary showcases. As a CSA project, we are collating and analysing existing knowledge rather than creating results beyond the state of art. However, the analysis of review, survey responses etc should allow us (in period 2) to extract key drivers that support restoration success, along with recommendations for policy support.
Whilst many projects and organisations present guidance on restoration along with project case studies, the EcoAdvance project approach differs by focusing on people and their experiences and recommendations.
Whilst many projects and organisations present guidance on restoration along with project case studies, the EcoAdvance project approach differs by focusing on people and their experiences and recommendations.