Creating Resilient River Systems by Mainstreaming and Upscaling NbS

In North West Europe (NWE), river systems are suffering considerably due to climate change causing massive floods and droughts that significantly affects economic sectors such as shipping and agriculture, recreation opportunities and biodiversity. Nature based Solutions (NbS) have proven to be a sustainable means of fending off those threats and making river systems more climate resilient. They contribute to the EU ambition of creating a Blue Economy and generate climate resilience while providing benefits for human well-being and biodiversity.



Nevertheless, implementation (mainstreaming) and wide-scale application (upscaling) of NbS in riverine systems has not yet become a common practice. Though EU and national policies are generally supportive to NbS, decision makers (e.g., politicians, or policy makers) are not always aware of these solutions as a viable option. External (stakeholder) support is occasionally insufficient when project organisations are willing to implement solutions.



This project addresses these issues and will:

- build a solid base of solutions that contribute to mainstreaming through gathering knowledge and experience from full scale NbS pilots in the Rhine, Meuse, Weser, Lys, Dromore and Wantij rivers and from previous experiences in the Rhone and Vesdre in the NWE.

- transfer knowledge and experience through easily accessible general and locally tailored training packages and (live) demonstrations for both partners and external parties.

- synthesize knowledge and experiences into easily implementable action plans, guidelines and policies.



The project is building on a strong partnership that covers river systems Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland and The Netherlands.Development and implementation of solutions that contribute to the mainstreaming of NbS, based on practical experiences that are gained in 8 different mainstreaming pilots in the whole NWE region.

Increase the technical and organisational capacities of partners, other authorities, and (prospective) water professionals by actively collecting and sharing knowledge and by developing and implementing a training scheme for mainstreaming NbS.

Accelerate the upscaling of NbS by development of guidelines, policy recommendations and action plans to support the implementation in cooperation with water management organisations on all relevant management and policy levels and scales of the NWE.