Nature-based ‘sponge’ solutions for climate resilience
The SpongeWorks project, which aims to enhance natural water retention at the landscape scale, has officially started. This Horizon Europe project focuses on advancing scientific knowledge and practical implementation of nature-based solutions in three large-scale river-basins in France, Greece, and Germany and the Netherlands. Deltares is co-coordinating the project, focusing on the implementation of practical solutions in the Vecht basin region.
Nature-based solutions
As Europe warms at twice the global rate, the continent faces increasingly severe extreme weather events. Since 1980, over 1,500 European floods have caused more than 4,300 deaths and €170 billion in economic damages.
The future impact of floods and droughts hinges on the health of European landscapes and their natural capacity to retain water, much like a ‘sponge’. Nature-based solutions that improve the ‘sponge’ functioning of landscapes are emerging as a sustainable approach to enhance resilience, but major barriers still delay their widespread adoption.
SpongeWorks
To tackle these barriers, ‘SpongeWorks: Co-creating and upscaling Sponge Landscapes by Working with Natural Water Retention and Sustainable Management’ launched on 1 September. Costing €15 million and funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe Programme, the project will run from 2024 until 2028. The project is coordinated by Leibniz University Hannover in Germany, and Deltares.
Christian Albert at Leibniz University Hannover and project coordinator: 'SpongeWorks will catalyse large-scale transformative change to enhance the resilience of interconnected groundwater, soil and surface water systems at landscape scale.’
Practical implementation
SpongeWorks will advance scientific knowledge and practical implementation in three large-scale river-basin demonstrators: Lèze in France, Pinios in Greece and Vecht, a transboundary basin shared between the Netherlands and Germany.
‘Sponge measures’ implemented will range from different types of agricultural and broader management practices, creating hedges, buffer strips, and infiltration ponds, to restoring rivers and peatlands and rewetting forests and grasslands.
Deltares will focus on translating scientific knowledge to practical implementation. This ties in well with our role as co-coordinator of the Horizon Europe SpongeScapes project, which gathers scientific evidence for the functioning of these measures in different European landscapes and for different hydrometeorological events.
By demonstrating the effectiveness of these measures within a wider landscape context in the three SpongeWorks demonstrators, we aim to inspire and enable other European regions to also implement nature-based measures to enhance climate resilience.
Ellis Penning, nature-based solutions and aquatic ecology expert at Deltares and project co-coordinator
Deltares will work closely with a range of partners, including the Vechtstromen water authority, the University of Twente, local partners in Germany, and other stakeholders. In the cross-border demonstrator in the Vecht, our work will focus particularly on quantifying the sponge functioning of the catchment area and the effects of nature-based solutions to enhance or restore this sponge functioning to mitigate floods and droughts.
Deltares will also study the impact of measures that are implemented both upstream, and downstream to tackle challenges such as drought and flooding on water quality, the local ecology, and socio-economic aspects.
Robust evidence
SpongeWorks will implement 19 distinct sponge measures, covering 4,000 hectares of land, 47 kilometres of river, and 22 kilometres of hedgerows, involving over 800 individual farm plots. Project partners will collaborate closely with local decision-makers, experts and practitioners to jointly assess technical, socioeconomic, financial, and governance aspects.
Through harmonized and systematic monitoring of soil, water quantity and quality, biodiversity, and socio-economic impacts, SpongeWorks will provide robust evidence on the effectiveness, co-benefits, and trade-offs, and socio-economic sustainability of these measures. The project will also actively support the replication of sponge strategies in a further 8 associated regions in Europe.
Key questions
The project will also address key questions regarding the upscaling of Nature-based Solutions and natural water retention measures across Europe, including:
- Which measures are most effective in terms of increased resilience, cost/benefit ratio and ease of implementation?
- What are the prerequisites for ensuring economic viability and mobilizing adequate financing?
- How can action plans and roadmaps be collaboratively developed for implementing sponge strategies at landscape scale?
- Which political and social engagement processes help ensure stakeholders effectively co-create and co-own these solutions?
- How can widespread replication be successfully achieved in diverse European regions?
Consortium
The SpongeWorks consortium is uniquely positioned to deliver this ambitious project, thanks to its 28 Consortium Partners and the backing of at least 23 Knowledge Partners. The Consortium includes on-the-ground implementation partners with hands-on experience, key local stakeholders like agricultural and environmental bodies, and leading European research institutions and universities across relevant fields. Activities in each demonstration basin are implemented by practice partners from authorities, land and water management groups, agricultural organisations, foundations, networks, SMEs and NGOs.
