Developing climate change adaptation; improving risk management and resilience

H2020 PONDERFUL:The “Lystrup” NBS: A Pondscape for Flood Risk Reduction, Biodiversity, and People

Pond: Lys3

This Pondscape is in a suburban area of Aarhus, with 18 ponds and about 10,300 inhabitants. The ponds reduce flood risk and enhance biodiversity, supporting amphibians, birds, and aquatic plants. It also offers walking paths and educates people about nature and environmental protection.

H2020 PONDERFUL: Pinkhill Meadow NBS: a small but highly valuable floodplain pondscape for biodiversity

One of the many ponds in the Pinkhill Meadow complex

This pondscape of newly created ponds is located in a floodplain meadow on Thames Water's Farmoor Reservoir property, on the banks of the River Thames, near Oxford. It was designed by Freshwater Habitats Trust to maximise freshwater biodiversity and has been closely monitored as a partnership since its creation in 1990.

The results show the exceptional value of the site for wetland plants, aquatic invertebrates, mammals, reptiles and birds, maintained over 35 years.

“ H2020 PONDERFUL: Water Friendly Farming NBS: a pondscape for biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services

New clean water ponds that provide a significant biodiversity gain in this agricultural landscape

This pondscape is located in a farmland near Leicester. All waterbodies in three upper catchments have been monitored since 2010. The results show an underlying  landscape-wide decline in freshwater plant biodiversity of 0.5-1% pa. However doubling the number of clean-water ponds turned the decline around:  producing a steep increase in richness and tripled the number of uncommon species.

H2020 PONDERFUL: Restauration of natural hydrological functioning through drainage removal

Prat de Rosers

Restauration of natural hydrological functioning through drainage removal

For centuries, inhabitants have built drainage systems to avoid water retention in the Albera pondscape. This has led to the disappearance of many ponds and the reduction of the length of time that the ponds are flooded. The aim of this NBS was to reverse this situation by restoring the natural functioning of Prat de Rosers pond.

In 2015, a project financed by the Andrena Foundation and developed by Gutina Cellar, IAEDEN, Geoserveis and UVic-UCC, made it possible to locate and block an...

H2020 PONDERFUL: The deurbanization of La Pletera

A de-construction project where a failed attempt of urbanization was substituted by a fully functional salt marsh ecosystem. La Pletera is a coastal salt marsh located in a very touristic zone and was affected by building works for a residential estate in the late 80s, and then discontinued in the 90s. After that, the area was protected and an ecological restoration project was developed, aimed to satisfy a long-held local aspiration: the restoration of the ecologically highly valuable saltmarsh that was partially destroyed by a construction project at the end of the 1980s.