Spongeworks

SPongeworks

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

Duration: 1 September 2024 – 31 August 2028 

Goals of the project: SpongeWorks leads the way for upscaling of ‘sponge measures’ as nature-based solutions to boost the natural water retention capacity in European river basins, thereby making regions more resilient to im-pacts of climate change. The project aims to demonstrate practical, effective, economically feasible and inclusive approaches and solutions towards enhancing the water retention capacity of interconnected groundwater, soil and surface water systems at regional scale while applying an integrative multi-actor approach to demonstrate the effectiveness of multifunctional sponge measures with soil, water quality and biodiversity co-benefits in three large-scale demonstrators in the Pinios (GR), Lèze (FR) and Vecht (NL/DE) river basins. 

Budget: The total budget is €15M. The University of Twente will receive approx. €500k, and DesignLab will receive approximately €80k. 

Role of DesignLab: DesignLab will take the lead in stakeholder engagement in the Vecht basin (Germany & the Netherlands). 

Background

This project is a largescale (15M budget, 28 partners) Innovation Action aiming to connect science and practice in three demonstrator areas across Europe in which DesignLab was invited to join to promote collaboration in the Vecht river basin. Working in this area brings together German and Dutch policy partners all sharing the responsibility for the Vecht river. Close local partners will be waterschap Vechtstromen, Grafschaft Bentheim and Municipality Hardenberg, while from UT ET-CEM and BMS-CSTM are also involved. DesignLab has proposed to co-design an engagement and learning process with all relevant stakeholders in the Vecht basin area. We have proposed to be initiating and facilitating a learning community, the development of guides and toolkits and a final guidebook. 

Description of the project

Spongeworks is about Co-creating and Upscaling Sponge Landscapes by Working with Natural Water Retention and Sustainable Management. In each of the three demonstrator areas, SpongeWorks evaluates existing sponge measures, draws les-sons-learned and best practices, and implements new sponge measures. SpongeWorks breaks new ground through scientific advances in integrated modelling and monitoring in the biophysical and socio-economic domains, enabling unprecedented levels of accuracy in the systemic evaluation of costs and (co-)benefits, for different sectors and society as a whole. The effectiveness of the large-scale implementation is analysed to co-create long-term sponge strategies with action plans and roadmaps at landscape scale. SpongeWorks engages and mobilises all relevant actors through social co-creation methods, promoting ownership of solutions and sustainability of results. 

HorizonEU SpongeWorks Kick-Off

📢The HorizonEU SpongeWorks kick-off-meeting in Hannover was a creative and intense experience!

Partners gathered at the wonderful premises of the Leibniz Universität Hannover to discuss, collaborate and set specific priorities on how the project will address key questions regarding the upscaling of Nature-based Solutions & natural water retention measures across Europe.

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