Monitoring and assessing the performance and the impact by a Nature-based Solution is an important task to be planned when designing a NbS. On-line sensors and ICT solutions plays hence a big role also in projects dealing with nature and regeneration of ecosystems. In the following it is described how RECONECT ICT team is working to develop and deploy appropriate tools to perform monitoring and evaluation of interventions.

The Thur is Eastern Switzerland’s predominant river, flowing from the limestone Alps into the Rhine river on the border with Germany. The name Thur comes from the Indo-European word dhu, meaning “the hurrying one”. And hurrying it does, sometimes spilling over its own banks and flooding adjacent land. Without any natural or artificial retention areas, the river caused at times great havoc. Today the basin benefits from nature-based solutions to absorb the excess water whilst the river flows, and hurries, the natural way again.

RECONECT, a 6-year EU project implementing Nature-based Solutions to reduce water-related climate risks, held its 7th General Assembly in Zurich from 23 to 25 May 2022. — The 7th RECONECT GA was the first meeting held in person following the COVID-19 easing of restrictions. The previous four GA’s had been held virtually. …

Story by Carlos A Madera P, M.Sc, Ph.D, Universidad del Valle, Cali-Colombia; Daniel Ascuntar R, M.Sc, DAGMA, Cali-Colombia. — The Cañaveralejo, Meléndez and Lili river basin. Cali is Colombia’s second-largest city and third most populous after Bogota and Medellin. As the only major Colombian city with access to the Pacific Coast, Cali is the main urban center in the south and has one of Colombia’s fastest-growing economies.

Nature-based Solutions and the new generation of engineers — Vishal Balaji Devanand, a student who recently graduated from IHE Delft, joins us to discuss his experience of working with the RECONECT project, his keen interest in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and how he believes we can take NbS to scale, contributing to building resilience to climate change. Vishal Balaji Devanand…

Partners from Operandum, Phusicos, and Reconect, three EU 2020 Horizon projects, gathered on Friday, August 27th to deliver a session at the first fully virtual Stockholm World Water Week. — The event entitled “Reconnecting water management with nature: Upscaling nature-based solutions” highlighted methods to scaling Nature-based Solutions (NbS), focusing on the potential barriers to uptake as well as the possible enablers and solutions to apply NbS to reduce hydro-meteorological risk and mitigate climate change.

When the clouds started gathering and turning dark grey around what was supposed to be a lovely mid-July day, little did we know the devastation the ensuing floods would cause for much of Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. — Authors: Zoran Vojinovic and Inger de Boer, Editor Claire Warmenbol On 11 July 2021, the weather conditions in Western parts of Europe triggered exceptionally high precipitation rates, which in turn led to widespread flooding turning many regions into disaster zones not seen in decades. …

Scaling-up is a core element of the RECONECT project. By demonstrating, monitoring and evaluating the benefits of NBS with regards to hydro-meteorological risk reduction, RECONECT is learning how to amplify the impact of the project by developing a tailored scaling strategy. — Authors: Diana Dushkova and Christian Kuhlicke, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research — UFZ How can social and technical innovations become more widely adopted and lead to a transformative impact beyond the immediate context in which they have been developed? What are the strategic steps needed and which specific measures and…

The river system of Dove and Gose Elbe (Hamburg, Germany) has to cope with floods and, more recently, with droughts. The distribution of the storage volume during flood events is now managed by the monitoring and control system, improved and finalised by RECONECT. Thanks to the project, hybrid solutions will also be implemented combining existing grey infrastructure and Nature-based Solutions — Authors: Dr.-Ing. Natasa Manojlovic, Senior Researcher at Hamburg University of Technology, member of the scientific advisory team for the German Demonstrator; Christian Ebel, The Ministry for Environment, Agriculture and Energy (BUKEA) of the City of Hamburg; Dieter Ackermann, Agency for Roads, Bridges and Waterways (LSBG) of the City of Hamburg.