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Co-creating and Upscaling Sponge Landscapes by Working with Natural Water Retention and Sustainable Management

Project description

Creating sponge landscapes for climate resilience

As climate change intensifies, landscapes across Europe must adapt to the changing frequency and intensity of floods and droughts. Traditional water management practices are often inadequate and can even exacerbate these growing challenges, making it essential to adopt nature-based solutions. The EU-funded SpongeWorks addresses this need by evaluating and implementing sponge measures and developing sponge strategies as landscape-level approaches that harness nature for improved water retention while providing a range of co-benefits. The project aims to assess and scale up these solutions to strengthen interconnected soil, groundwater, and surface water systems. Through collaboration with local stakeholders and the integration of best practices, SpongeWorks aims to transform landscape management and enhance climate resilience across Europe.

Objective

Floods and droughts put increasing pressure on the European society, with estimated annual damages from river flooding of €7.6 billion and drought-induced losses over €9 billion. Fostering sponge measures as nature-based solutions to boost the natural retention function of landscapes is promising but implementation must be rapidly upscaled and innovative approaches to increase the integration, involvement and cooperation of diverse actors from local to basin wide levels are urgently needed. SpongeWorks aims to demonstrate practical, effective, economically feasible and inclusive approaches and solutions towards enhancing the sponge functioning of interconnected groundwater, soil and surface water systems at regional scale. It applies an integrative multi-actor approach to demonstrate the effectiveness of multifunctional sponge measures for improved water and soil management for enhancing water retention in three large demonstrators in the Pinios (GR), Lèze (FR) and Vecht (NL/DE) river basins. In each demonstrator, SpongeWorks evaluates existing sponge measures, draws lessons-learned and best practices, and implements new sponge measures. The effectiveness of large-scale implementation is assessed to co-create long-term sponge strategies with action plans and roadmaps at landscape scale. Broad dissemination of best-practices, promotion of exemplary demonstration areas as lighthouses, and targeted replication in eight associated regions ensures long-lasting impact of this work. SpongeWorks contributes to transformative change of landscape management to ensure regions are more adapted and resilient to climate change impacts on soils, waters, habitats and biodiversity. By combining scientific excellence and practical know-how from established communities of practice, as well as facilitating mutual learning and sharing of successful strategies, SpongeWorks will catalyse a shift in the pace of implementation of sponge measures and strategies across Europe and beyond.

Coordinator

GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ UNIVERSITAET HANNOVER
Net EU contribution
€ 1 630 960,00
Address
WELFENGARTEN 1
30167 Hannover
Germany

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Region
Niedersachsen Hannover Region Hannover
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost
€ 1 630 960,00

Participants (26)

Partners (1)