Natural Water Retention Measures (NWRM) to face climate change: launch of the SpongeScapes project
The SpongeScapes project, which brings together 10 European partners, was launched at the beginning of October as part of the Horizon Europe programme dedicated to research and innovation, and will run for 4 years.
The aim? To assess the functioning of "sponge measures", which include natural water retention measures. The objective is to improve the capacity of natural or managed ecosystems to absorb, store and slowly release water, thereby mitigating the consequences of floods or droughts.
OiEau is responsible for capitalising on knowledge about the sponge function of soils (making known the available solutions and their benefits for territories and populations by strengthening the database), and for communicating, disseminating and exploiting the results of the project.
The project will firstly refine the assessment of existing 'sponge measures', which are often sparse, so that they can then be transposed into broader 'sponge strategies' at landscape level.
years
case studies
updated cases
To this end, the project will focus on 14 case studies, located in rural or peri-urban environments in different climatic zones of Europe, and representative of a variety of soils.
SpongeScapes will also update the 140 cases recorded in the nwrm.eu database on natural water retention measures (managed by OiEau), with information on implementation and maintenance methods, to form a major hub of practical knowledge on these nature-based solutions.
Local meetings and workshops will also be organised throughout the project to disseminate the main findings and results.
See the project sheet
