PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Climate change is a significant threat to natural habitats in Hungary. One of the most important problems in these habitats is water scarcity. By 2050, every part of Hungary will see a minimum 1°C temperature rise, and summer mean temperature increase may exceed 4°C by the end of the century (according to ALADIN and REGCM models). Beyond temperature increase, climate change will strongly impact the water cycle. There is a negative water-balance in Hungary. The inflows are lower than outflows by average of 7 km3 of water, and a third of it is lost through local drainage channels. At the same time, the major part of the country is prone to droughts, the potential evapotranspiration is higher than the annual precipitation, and some parts of the country face sinking of the groundwater table. There is a low level of adaptive capacity in Hungarian municipalities, especially small settlements, and an urgent need to shift water management from a drainage-based paradigm to retention-based management, to bridge extreme wet and extreme dry periods. The National Water Strategy urges the implementation of green infrastructure and soft engineering solutions, but these require case-by-case approach and local level assessment, in order to support efficient integration of them into the already functioning infrastructure. The collaboration of local stakeholders within the process is of key importance as coordination on this spatial level is out of the scope of the national water governance bodies.
So far experiences, also gained through the LIFE-MICACC project, which focused on municipalities as integrators and coordinators in the adaptation to climate change, confirmed that local governments play an important role in local level climate change adaptation (CCA) and can be motivated to apply to be engaged in implementation of Natural Water Retention Measures (NWRMs). However, isolated implementation of water-related adaptation measures, without consideration of impacts on other parts of the catchment, are often not optimal. Therefore, the catchment-scale implementation of a complete adaptation cycle from assessment to implementation is of crucial importance.
OBJECTIVES
The goal of the LIFE LOGOS 4 WATERS project is to improve climate resilience of local municipalities. It will be achieved by mitigating the negative water-balance situation through the demonstration of integrated ecosystem-based water management solutions applied at the catchment level.
The project will use a bottom-up planning process and involve multiple local stakeholders in a coordinated implementation of Natural Water Retention Measures (NWRMs) to reduce climate vulnerability stemming from water-related events. It will also address the loss of freshwater ecosystems through restoration; improvement of aquatic habitats, and smoothing streams and rivers discharges through retention of excess water. The project team will promote the uptake of these measures for climate adaptation through knowledge transfer, capacity building, and replication activities.
Specific project objectives are to:
- Demonstrate catchment-level multi-stakeholder cooperation and decision-making regarding implementation of NWRMs under municipal coordination on two different types of small catchments (one upland and one lowland catchment), and to share experiences with local governments and the water-management sector;
- Develop knowledge and capacity of actors involved in planning, licensing and implementation of green-blue infrastructural solutions (water engineers, water engineering students, public authorities, municipal decision-makers and experts, water management professionals) regarding the integrated use of NWRMs at local and catchment-level, to enhance mainstreaming the use of ecosystem-based solutions in local climate change adaptation;
- Build a supportive environment for the water-retention based climate adaptation through propagating and reinforcing the approaches ‘water is valuable’ and ‘water is the key to climate adaptation’ among municipal level leaders, government level decision-makers and the general public;
- Map and collect relevant decision support systems, modelling tools, best practice databases, guidelines, handbooks and other tools, make them easily and widely accessible and usable for local municipality leaders and staff in order to support efficient local and catchment level climate adaptation strategies and actions;
- Build international relations and knowledge of local governments, authorities and organisations responsible for climate adaptation to increase their capacity and access to national and EU funds that support ecosystem-based adaptation measures, and increase their potential to build international partnerships;
- Incorporate the approach of integrated retention-based water management and close-to-nature climate adaptation into the complex planning and regulatory mechanisms in order to establish a common point-of-view among the affected actors.
The project contributes to the implementation of three actions of the EU Adaptation Strategy (implementation of the national adaptation strategy, urban adaptation action, bridging the knowledge gap); the EU Biodiversity Strategy; EU waterpolicy (Water Framework Directive, Floods Directive, Water Scarcity and Droughts Strategy, Groundwater Directive) and Hungarian river basin management plans and the national water strategy; and the EU Strategy for the Danube Region.
RESULTS
Expected results:
In the field of improved knowledge of the key experts and decision makers:
- Increased knowledge and capacity of municipalities and key stakeholders on ecosystem-based adaptation and climate-induced water risks, and integrated water management contributes to better adaptation capacity to climate change;
- Organization of the Roadshows, involving 630 participants, and development of 5 training materials tested by over 300 participants;
- Development of an Integrated Municipal Decision Support Platform with at least 1 000 visitors, which reaches all the 3 177 Hungarian municipalities through publications and other means;
Improved adaptive capacity and climate resilience of the 2 pilot catchments:
- The catchment-level implementation of NWRMs strengthens local and regional climate resilience and enables the mitigation of the effects of climate change on ecosystems and natural resources;
- Improved adaptive capacity and climate resilience in the two pilot catchments, aiming to increase the water retention capacity by about 39 000 m3 and to decrease the damage caused by flash floods per decade by 50% in these two pilot areas;
- Development of 2 strategic documents (SECAPs), for two catchment areas, with 10 further municipalities joining during the project period;
- Better climate governance at local and regional levels achieved by improved cooperation of municipalities and local stakeholders;
Better climate governance at local and regional levels by better cooperation of municipalities and local stakeholders:
- Two Multi-Stakeholder Catchment Forum established, cooperation of 15 municipalities in 2 pilot catchments ensured, Integrated Municipal Water Management Plan for 8 settlements and a methodology guide to integrate its use into the municipal planning system developed; and
- During the project period, 2 municipal support programmes organised with around 40 applications and 20 granted applications, and at least 60 local decision makers and 30 000 citizens made aware of the project’s results.
