PROWATER
Protecting and restoring raw water sources through actions at the landscape scale
Priority Axis
Adaptation to Climate ChangeSpecific objective
Adaptation to Climate Change
Lead partner
Vlaamse Overheid, Departement OmgevingContact
Begindatum
01/09/2018Einddatum
28/02/2023Project budget
5 526 620 €ERDF amount
3 315 972 €ERDF rate
60%Over
Common challenge
Build resilience against droughts (and water scarcity) by enhancing infiltration and water retention capacity of landscapes in regions of strategic importance for drinking water production. Climate projections for the 2 seas area, point towards dryer and warmer summers with more extreme and concentrated precipitation events (summer storms). This could result in a higher demand for water production (on hot, dry days, water consumption can triple). Increased water abstractions volumes during summer will have high impacts at an already critical moment for water dependent ecosystems. This will aggravate the conflict between water provisioning and biodiversity conservation. Restoring and developing blue-green structures in landscapes improves the hydrological resilience to droughts and floods, provides substantial climate mitigation benefits and benefits biodiversity.
Overall objective
Main outputs
Cross border approach
Main Achievements
Climate projections for the 2 Seas area point towards drier and warmer summers with more extreme and concentrated precipitation events in the form of summer storms. This could result in a higher demand for water production in the future. However, our natural capital – the stock of natural assets that we rely on – is under threat from climate change. It is key to the provision of clean and plentiful water. In order to ensure the raw water resources that we need, we have to restore our ecosystems to become more resilient to climate change and adapt.
On 5 March 2019, we launched the Interreg PROWATER project in Canterbury, UK. The cross-border project PROWATER stands for 'protecting and restoring raw water sources through actions at the landscape scale’, and contributes to climate change adaptation by restoring the water storage of the landscape through "ecosystem-based adaptation measures". Examples are forest conversion, natural water retention or restoration of soil compaction.
The implementation and demonstration of good practices for restoration of hydrological resilience to droughts is advancing well. The first tendered works started in October 2019 at investment site “De Scheppelijke Nete”. A description of all the investment sites can be found on the PROWATER website, which was launched this year as well.
Another key objective of the PROWATER project is to pave the way to development of a collective approach (Payment for Adaptation Measures) and common toolbox (spatial prioritisation, assessment of co-benefits). This will pave the way towards an operational long-term rewarding/funding scheme for the spatial implementation of EbA measures that increase the hydrological resilience to droughts.
We follow a methodic procedure. The first step is to make a SWOT analysis of such a PEbA rewarding/funding scheme. Therefore, a series of workshops have been organized in Autumn 2018 and Spring 2019 to make an inventory of potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. In these workshops we discussed the need and desirability of PES-schemes from different perspectives.
To really succeed, we need to continuously raise awareness on water scarcity and establish partnerships for implementing EbA measures. Further implementation the delivered communication strategy & communication plan (considering the target groups identified) in 2020 will significantly advance the progress towards PROWATER’s objectives described above.