Water Co-Governance for sustainable ecosystems

Programme 2014 - 2020 INTERREG VB North Sea

Date of latest update: 2024-09-18

Description

Description (EN):

The natural environment is dependent on water to provide society with many essential benefits or “ecosystem services” (e.g. drinking water, biodiversity, food production, recreation, carbon sequestration). A number of EU directives aim to protect and improve the delivery of these services. However, successful implementation and integration of the different directives at a local level is a major shared challenge in the NSR. Understanding how this can be achieved is fundamental to delivering long-term sustainable ecosystem-based management strategies for the NSR and the focus for the WaterCoG project. The project will demonstrate through the adoption of new participatory, ecosystem service based approaches that implementation and integration of different water management frameworks can be achieved at the same time as providing additional social, economic and environmental benefits not currently being realised.A strong transnational component will identify and incorporate common, transferable elements of different approaches into an up-scaling toolbox that will extend the impact of the project and build capacity for delivering improved sustainable management strategies for NSR ecosystems. The projects’ output aims for a change in working practice that will improve the integration between top-down implementation of European and national directives and bottom-up, participatory developed solutions for improving the quality and sustainable management strategies of NSR ecosystems.

Achievements (EN):

Throughout the Water Co-Governance Project, partners from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and UK have cooperated to implement actions at local, regional, national, and transnational levels to improve the integration between top-down approaches and bottom-up, participatory developed solutions for improving the quality and sustainable management of ecosystems in the North Sea region. Testing new approaches and supported by a programme of knowledge exchange and communication activities we have achieved results that can be summarised across the following five themes. Multi sector support - we have demonstrated that meaningful opportunities to engage with co-governance structures in water management can achieve strong multi-sector and wider civil society support (see the project's evaluation report) that is essential for the sustainable management of ecosystems in the North Sea Region. Return on public investment – securing and sustaining appropriate co-governance structures can generate a significant return on public investment. Cost avoidance has been achieved through greater cross-sector collaboration and planning, e.g., prevention of development in flood prone areas of Denmark. Improved data collection and sharing arrangements (including programmes of citizen science) have increased our knowledge of the issues, resulting in more effective investment decisions. Government funding has been more than doubled by UK CaBA partnerships and wider benefits of increased participation, knowledge and social capital have been demonstrated throughout the project e.g. through participating Swedish Water Councils, Climate Café events and round table meetings. Ecosystem improvements – Project activities have resulted in a strong body of evidence to demonstrate that with the right co-governance structures in place, greater join-up and increased scalable action can be delivered to improve the environment and also foster greater ownership for protecting and enhancing the natural environment on a more sustainable, long term basis. Transnational knowledge exchange – strong transnational cooperation during the project has enabled greater change and project impacts. Tools as 'hard outputs' have been developed and demonstrated in a Storymap and Directory. However, of equal importance has been the 'soft outputs' of collaboration, discussion, and knowledge sharing in considering how countries can make improvements to co-governance approaches. The final conference was the last of a series of crucial cross-partner meetings to reflect and design methods for improving co-governance in a collaborative transnational approach. Lasting impact - the project's reflections on the baseline report demonstrates the shifts in perceptions for each country since the start of the project; culminating in key themes for further focus such as the need for greater citizen science and community engagement. WaterCoG activities have led to a new nation-wide citizen science monitoring project in the UK supported with funding (~€8M equivalent) from water companies, and a new national Water Governance Group has been established to investigate new systems for water co-governance and management. In Denmark a Government National Support Mechanism has been established as a 'new political green deal' to include a national pilot program worth €2.1m for testing a more bottom-up and locally based approach for making water actions plans. In Sweden, a new programme of catchment officers has also been funded, to develop and implement co-governance measures across catchments. For more details of the project outputs please visit the project web page.

Website: https://northsearegion.eu/watercog

Thematic information

Water management

Specific Objective: Develop new methods for the long-term sustainable management of North Sea ecosystems

Thematic Objective: (06) preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency by:

Investment Priority: (06d) Protecting and restoring biodiversity and soil and promoting ecosystem services, including through Natura 2000, and green infrastructure

Partners (9)

Lead Partner: The Rivers Trust

Address: Rain-Charm House, Kyl-Cober parc, Stoke Climsland, PL17 8PH Callington, United Kingdom

Legal status: private

Website (not verified): http://www.theriverstrust.org

Total budget: EUR 924 045.00

ERDF budget: EUR 462 022.00

Aalborg Kommune

Name: Aalborg Kommune

Address: Stigsborg Brygge 5, 9400 Nørresundby, Denmark

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.limfjordsraadet.dk

Total budget: EUR 396 065.00

ERDF budget: EUR 198 032.00

Hanze Hogeschool

Name: Hanze Hogeschool

Address: Zernikeplein 11, 9747 AS 9701 DA, 3037 Groningen, Netherlands

Legal status: public

Website: https://www.hanze.nl/eng

Total budget: EUR 406 540.00

ERDF budget: EUR 203 270.00

Havs- och vattenmyndigheten (HaV)

Name: Havs- och vattenmyndigheten (HaV)

Address: Gullbergs strandgata 15, Box 11 930, 404 39 Gothenburg, Sweden

Legal status: public

Website: https://www.havochvatten.se/

Total budget: EUR 473 610.00

ERDF budget: EUR 236 805.00

Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier

Name: Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier

Address: Bevelandseweg 1, 1703 AZ Heerhugowaard, Netherlands

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.hhnk.nl

Total budget: EUR 769 950.00

ERDF budget: EUR 384 975.00

Kommunernes Landsforening

Name: Kommunernes Landsforening

Address: Weidekampsgade 10, 2300 København S, Denmark

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.kl.dk

Total budget: EUR 160 075.00

ERDF budget: EUR 80 037.00

Oldenburgisch-Ostfriesische Wasserverband

Name: Oldenburgisch-Ostfriesische Wasserverband

Address: Georgstrasse 4, 26919 Brake, Germany

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.oowv.de

Total budget: EUR 583 884.00

ERDF budget: EUR 291 942.00

SEGES

Name: SEGES

Address: Agro Food Park 15, Aarhus, N8200 Aarhus N, Denmark

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.seges.dk

Total budget: EUR 389 945.00

ERDF budget: EUR 194 972.00

Vattenmyndigheten Västerhavets vattendistrikt

Name: Vattenmyndigheten Västerhavets vattendistrikt

Address: Länsstyrelsen i Västra Götalands län, 403 40 Gothenburg, Sweden

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.vattenmyndigheten.se

Total budget: EUR 396 295.00

ERDF budget: EUR 198 147.00

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

The Rivers Trust

Water Co-Governance for sustainable ecosystems

Partners and Projects info

City of Aalborg (AAL)

Water Co-Governance for sustainable ecosystems

Partners and Projects info

Hanze University of Applied Sciences

Water Co-Governance for sustainable ecosystems

Partners and Projects info

Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM)

Water Co-Governance for sustainable ecosystems

Partners and Projects info

Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier

Water Co-Governance for sustainable ecosystems

Partners and Projects info

Kommunernes Landsforening

Water Co-Governance for sustainable ecosystems

Partners and Projects info

Waterboard of Oldenburg

Water Co-Governance for sustainable ecosystems

Partners and Projects info

SEGES

Water Co-Governance for sustainable ecosystems

Partners and Projects info

The Skagerrak & Kattegatt Water District Authority

Water Co-Governance for sustainable ecosystems

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Water Co-Governance for sustainable ecosystems

Project acronym: WaterCoG

Project start date: 2016-01-01

Project end date: 2021-10-31

Project status: closed

Relevant precedent projects:

STAR2Cs
Rich Waters, LIFE

Relevant subsequent projects:

WATERDRIVE

Relevant linked projects:

TOPSOIL
C5A
CATCH
goCAM, German BMBF
STEER, German BMBF

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 4 572 916.00

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 2 286 455.00

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, .

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 INTERREG VB North Sea

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2023-02-14

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

73 / 73 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

871 / 871 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://www.northsearegion.eu/), or a website directly linked from it, on 2021-09-20 and 2023-01-12.

The financial data featured in keep.eu for this programme, it's projects and its partners is not exact and should be taken as a reference only.

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Water Co-Governance for sustainable ecosystems

Description

Thematic information

Partners (9)

Partners map

Summary

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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