EU Mission
SpongeScapes is a European Union
research project (Horizon Europe). It contributes to the objectives of the European Union mission "Adaptation to Climate Change"
- The Mission focuses on supporting EU regions, cities and local authorities in their efforts to build resilience against the impacts of climate change.
- The Polish, French and Italian SpongeScapes case studies are located in regions that signed the Mission Charter of the EU Mission on Climate Adaptation, thereby committing to strive towards climate resilience by 2030 and receiving technical assistance from the Mission Implementation Platform (MIP4Adapt).
- Find out more
Context
Urbanization, river engineering and intensive agriculture have damaged landscapes' natural sponge functions—making us more vulnerable to climate change impacts like floods and droughts.
- In less urbanized landscapes, rainwater is slowed down by a variety of "natural barriers": trees and vegetation, hedges, ditches, wetlands.
- The water then slowly circulates through the landscape, feeding a variety of streams and their floodplains. It can also better infiltrate the soil, replenishing the groundwater table.
- Sponge measures help the water cycle find its natural, slower rhythm so that it can better support natural ecosystems, sustain economic activities and increase our resilience to extreme events such as floods or droughts.
Objectives
SpongeScapes aims to improve the sponge functioning of soil, groundwater, and surface water ecosystems, with the aim to improve the resilience of European landscapes against floods and droughts.
- Sponge measures are a type of nature-based solution that absorb, store, retain and slowly release water, mitigating floods and droughts and providing lasting benefits.
- Their implementation is challenging due to limited historical data, the need for diverse expertise, particularly in ecology, hydrology and soil sciences and long-term cooperation between knowledge holders and stakeholders.
- This is precisely where SpongeScapes aims to help, by bringing new evidence and tools for upscaling the implementation of sponge measures in landscape wide sponge strategies.
What is SpongeScapes?
"Green where we can, grey where we must"
Evidence and Solutions for improving SPONGE Functioning at LandSCAPE Scale in European Catchments for increased Resilience of Communities against Hydrometeorological Extreme Events
SpongeScapes accelerates solutions that improve the sponge functioning of soil, groundwater, and surface water ecosystems, with the aim to improve the resilience of European landscapes against extreme hydrometeorological events such as floods and droughts.
SpongeScapes is a European Union research project (Horizon Europe). It contributes to the objectives of the European Union mission “Adaptation to Climate Change”, one of the five EU research missions.
The Project in Numbers
4 Year Project
from 2023 to 2027.
€3 million budget
funded by the EU and UKRI
10 European Partners
representing 8 countries.
14 Case Studies
Across 7 European countries.
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How we work together
10 partners from 8 European countries
SpongeScapes is a partnership between Deltares (NL), leader of the project, International Office for Water (FR), Leibniz University Hannover (DE), University of Padova (IT), University of Ljubljana (SI), Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia (SI), Warsaw University of Life Sciences (PL), World WideFund Greece (GR), Etifor (IT) and UK Centre For Ecology & Hydrology (UK). SpongeScapes is funded under European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, Grant Agreement No 101112738, and supported by UK Research and Innovation/HM Government.
