SAfeguard BIodiversity and improve Climate Adaptation in catchment areas under pressure: tools and Solutions (SABICAS)

Rivers and streams are important for biodiversity because many species live in the areas around them. However, rivers and the nature surround them are under severe pressure, where they are affected by pollution, changes in land use, interventions in nature and climate change. Floods, for example, can cause widespread destruction and threaten the safety of the local population. To reverse this negative trend, we need to think holistically and implement overall measures. SABICAS works with the entire catchment area around the watercourses when assessing which measures work best to limit the negative effects of climate change while preserving nature. SABICAS is a research and collaboration project that includes a number of partners working with research, management and biodiversity. Local users and stakeholders are involved through discussions, fieldwork and so-called ‘living laboratories’. This gives them the opportunity to provide important input to the project and have their say on which solutions should be prioritised. In SABICAS, we are studying two catchment areas that are affected by human activities: Haldenvassdraget in southeastern Norway and Gausa in inland Norway. Here we explore how nature-based solutions (NbS) can be established in the landscape along the waterways without causing economic losses. The main goal of the project is to create a user-friendly toolbox for NbS in Norwegian waterways. NbS is based on or mimics natural processes. Riparian zones, wetlands and floodplains are already important parts of the natural ecosystems of watercourses and can, among other things, prevent flooding, erosion and landslides. By incorporating such solutions into river basin management, they can contribute to climate change adaptation, biodiversity, water quality and other benefits for people who use the rivers. SABICAS is actively working with all user groups, from fly fishers to farmers and from local interest groups to politicians, through a range of activities such as workshops and living laboratories. User input helps shape the course of the project, and the dialogue with them is important to ensure the right priorities are set for the placement of NbS in the catchment. In SABICAS we aim to find out which types and designs of NbS are most effective in achieving the goals and create a tool that can help in the future management of rivers in Norway. SABICAS has recruited a post-doctoral researcher to work on a modelling tool (SWAT+) developed to simulate interactions and processes within a catchment. This model is widely used to assess the hydrology of agricultural catchments, prevention and control of soil erosion, control of non-point source pollution and regional catchment management. In SABICAS, we use the model to predict how nature-based solutions will evolve over time and interact with other processes in the catchment. SABICAS’s PhD student has been collecting multispectral images using drones and by studying these images, we will be able to say something about the complexity and heterogeneity of the riparian vegetation along the watercourses, so that we can find out, for example, where measures in the riparian zones along the watercourses will have the greatest effect.

River networks are key ecosystems harboring disproportionally high amounts of biodiversity relative to their areal coverage. Simultaneously, biodiversity loss rates for freshwater dependent species is equally high as rivers integrate all land-use stressors from their catchments, and flooding risk increases due to climate change. Collectively, this urgently calls for holistic multi-purpose management approaches. Despite the ecosystem-based management enforced through the EU Water Framework Directive, catchment processes and freshwater dependent riparian ecosystems are not included in the river basin management plans. Consequently, the coupling between diverse and functional riparian zones, floodplains, and wetlands to riverine biodiversity is not a coherent part of current environmental legislation, hereby omitting logical preservation and management synergies benefitting the whole ecosystem. SABICAS will focus on river catchments under pressure from a range of land-uses, and how to optimally convert parts of the current land-use into resilient, (eco)functioning Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) using riparian zones, wetlands, and floodplains. Riparian NBS condense multifunctional purposes and have potential to provide a pivotal balance between nature, natural resources, and human society in a future with increased land-use pressures and a changing climate. SABICAS aims to provide tools and knowledge needed to quantify NBS benefits (biodiversity improvements and climate adaptation) and co-benefits (mitigating negative effects of other land-use stressors) for freshwater dependent biodiversity and human society in order to facilitate dialogue and decision making among stakeholders and managers and to overcome prioritization barriers. This will enable a faster transition towards green and sustainable solutions in river catchments with multiple conflicting interests.