Boosting flood resilience in estuarine systems anticipating shifting climate zones (INTERREG-project) (EVINBO)

Details

The INTERREG BONSAI project is a collaboration of 17 partners from Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany who have a link to the water management of estuarine rivers. The partnership consists of water managers, policy-supporting scientific institutes and universities.
The goal is to make flood defence systems (dykes) in estuaries resistant to climate change in both the short and long term by learning from locations in different climate zones in Europe (i.e. test sites) and developing and sharing proactive and responsive measures.
The role of INBO is to investigate the impact of prolonged droughts on dyke vegetation and their erosion resistance. To determine how dyke vegetation will change due to climate change, the vegetation composition on dykes in different climate zones (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden) is being explored (space-for-time).

BONSAI
Boosting flood resilience in estuarine systems anticipating shifting climate zones
BONSAI is an Interreg North-West Europe project where 17 organisations from four European countries work closely together to make flood defense systems more resilient against climate change.

Objectives
BONSAI aims to make flood defence systems in tidal estuaries of NWE more short and long term resilient against climate change by learning from sites in different climate zones over Europe and developing and sharing pro-active and responsive measures. Organisations responsible for flood resilience and societal partners in tidal estuaries in NWE are empowered through capacity building to strengthen their resilience and better act in case of flood threats caused by extreme weather events.

Results
Based on results of pilot actions and training schemes, the partners of BONSAI will jointly develop and embed a transnational strategy for improved resilience against foreseen and unforeseen effects of climate change on flood defence systems in the estuaries of NW Europe and jointly develop and embed three action plans on 1. short term flood defence robustness 2. long term resilience and 3. disaster management. The project envisions to provide guidance for the future, using existing as well as newly developed knowledge.
BONSAI will jointly develop and validate transnationally: 2 short term flood defence robustness solutions, 2 long term increased resilience of flood defence systems solutions and a solution for enhancing disaster management for flood risk related disasters. Towards the end of the project, the solutions will be fully implemented by our 6 flood risk management project partners and available for other authorities responsible for flood risk management.

BONSAI will jointly increase the capacity of flood resilience experts, disaster management organisations, young professionals, and next generation flood resilience experts by

1. developing and executing multiple training schemes on flood disaster management,
2. courses on short term flood defence robustness and long term flood resilience in curricula and
3. working on a transnational community of practice in the form of a flood academy, including field training during pilot actions.

More information and updates: https://BONSAI.nweurope.eu

Financial support from Interreg NWE
BONSAI total budget: EUR 10.7 million
EU Interreg NWE program funding: EUR 6 .4 million

BONSAI start and end dates
Project start date: January 1^st, 2025
Project end date: June 30^th, 2029

BONSAI partners

1. STOWA (lead partner) The Netherlands
2. Universität Siegen Germany
3. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium
4. Université de Lille France
5. Rijkswaterstaat The Netherlands
6. Departement Mobiliteit en Openbare Werken Belgium
7. HZ University of Applied Sciences The Netherlands
8. CEREMA France
9. Ministerie van Defensie The Netherlands
10. De Vlaamse Waterweg Belgium
11. Waterschap Noorderzijlvest The Netherlands
12. ISL Ingénierie France
13. Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier The Netherlands
14. ESTP – Grande école d’ingénieurs de la Construction France
15. Université Catholique de Louvain Belgium
16. Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek Belgium
17. Radboud University The Netherlands

 

Status	Running
Actual start/end date	01/01/2025 - 31/12/2029

Teams

• Estuaries
• Wildlife Management and Invasive Species

INBO Research theme(s)

• Water
• Climate