RECONECT demonstrates, references and upscales Nature-Based Solutions in rural and natural areas
Urgency of the situation
Economic and other losses from natural disasters are increasing throughout Europe.
In spite of technological capabilities have advanced rapidly, over the last years damages from hydro-meteorological events alone have shown the fastest rate of increase relative to any other type of disasters. Such evidence of a disconnection between the use of technological approaches in responding to natural disasters revealed the need to regenerate ecosystem services to cope with hydro-meteorological events since “grey infrastructures” are not always effective, adaptive and sized against climate changes.
Societal awareness
Rapid urbanisation and population growth are putting an increasing pressure on already scarce natural resources.
An urban development that integrates green infrastructure, or so-called Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), into planning practices makes urban and surrounding rural areas more resilient to the impacts of climate change, floods, droughts and other environmental shocks.
NBS also provide a wealth of social, environmental and economic benefits.
Transdisciplinary approach
The conceptual strength of Nature-Based Solutions to tackle multifaceted challenges faced by society resides in its integrative and systemic approach.
This approach is embedded in RECONECT, an unprecedented transdisciplinary partnership of researchers, industrial partners (SMEs and large consultancies) and authorities/agencies at local and watershed/regional level. They integrate different perspectives from relevant stakeholders so that the proposed “solutions” contribute not only to reduce hydro-meteorological risks, but also to enable multiple benefits for the governance.
Bridging science to policy
RECONECT brings scientific evidence about the exclusive benefits of Nature-Based Solutions to reduce the impacts of water-related climatic risks into policy-making to support adoption.
The outcomes of RECONECT provides policy makers and practitioners with the necessary capacities, knowledge and skills to scale up Nature-Based Solutions, as well as how to deploy and integrate them with traditional grey infrastructure solutions.
Latest news & events
New paper on NBS under discussion
Laddaporn Ruangpan and Zoran Vojinovic (IHE Delft) wrote a joint paper on Nature Based Solutions with members of other European Commission projects on NBS (OPERANDUM, Phusicos and Naiad). The scientific paper “Nature-Based Solutions for hydro-meteorological risk reduction: A state-of-the-art review of the research area” is now under discussion for the important journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS).
RECONECT at the EGU General Assembly 2019
RECONECT was at the EGU 2019 General Assembly in Vienna, one of the most important events in the geoscience field! Guido Paliaga from CNR-IRPI (Italy) presented a poster (authors: Paliaga, Faccini, Luino, Turconi, Tarolli) on terraced landscape in the Portofino Natural Park, RECONECT Demonstrator A.
RECONECT at the NAIAD project meeting
The NAIAD project General Assembly Meeting took place from 21st to 23rd January 2019 in Ljubljana (Slovenia). The event consisted of internal meetings between sister project Coordinators and the European Commission (EC), as well as of other meetings, all aiming at enhancing cooperation activities with similar EC projects in relation to Nature Based Solutions (NBS).