Improving Landscape resilience by integrating measures to adapt and mitigate hydrological EXtremes

The frequency of occurrence of floods and droughts are likely to increase due to climate change. Flood magnitudes will significantly increase in most parts of Europe, even for areas where annual rainfall is expected to decrease, resulting from a more intense hydrological cycle. Resilient landscapes are necessary to reduce the impacts of floods and droughts and protect society. Various measures have been developed to prevent the effects of floods and droughts, but the problems are persistent and are expected to aggravate in the future. Increasingly, non-structural measures, such as Nature Based Solutions (NBS), are being recognised as potential solutions for this purpose, complementing structural solutions. To plan viable NBS measures, it is essential to integrate local stakeholders in the process. Stakeholders have important insights on the feasibility of implementing measures from a social and economic perspective. Moreover, the co-creation of measures with stakeholders can improve communication and overcome institutional, knowledge, and other barriers to adopting measures. The overall aim of LandEX is to improve landscape resilience to hydroclimatic extremes (floods and droughts), by spatially optimising a suite of adaptation measures in the landscape. The project proposes to achieve this by applying connectivity-based hydrological models and by designing adaptation scenarios in close collaboration with local stakeholders. Through these objectives and related outputs and outcomes, LandEX is expected to contribute to mitigating the impact of floods and droughts on society, by helping water managers design effective spatial adaptation scenarios with the collaboration of landowners.

LandEX aims to improve landscape resilience to hydroclimatic extremes – both floods and droughts – by spatially optimising a suite of adaptation measures in the landscape. Knowledge gaps addressed by LandEX include: (i) how different NBS measures can increase water retention in the landscape and, thus, mitigate floods and droughts at the same time; (ii) how their spatial location determines their effectiveness at the landscape level, and (iii) potential synergies between a network of different measures distributed throughout the landscape. LandEX uses the concept of hydrological connectivity to design spatially-explicit adaptation scenarios which retain water from wet periods to be available during dry periods. The approach is tested in 5 study areas in northern and southern Europe. LandEX works closely with local and regional stakeholders, as it is crucial to co-design such adaptation scenarios to ensure their feasibility and adoption and to incorporate them into regional spatial planning. LandEX aims to achieve the objectives, addressed in 5 specific Work Packages: WP1: Investigate in each study area the current hotspots for flood and drought occurrence and how existing mitigation measures perform. WP2: Co-design spatial adaptation scenarios of feasible and potentially effective suites of measures in the landscape. WP3: Quantify the effectiveness of the adaptation scenarios using spatially explicit hydrological models. WP4: Develop a tool to support managers in optimising landscape resilience and to visualize scenario outcomes through an online map interface. WP5: Stimulate co-learning between the 5 study areas by enabling exchange of experiences with different sets of innovative adaptation measures. LandEX consortium partners have great experience with floods and droughts, mitigation measures, including NBS, hydrological modelling and stakeholders participation in projects. In addition, consortium partners have collaborated in earlier and ongoing projects.