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This section of WISE Freshwater showcases a series of Nature based solutions with practical applications for improving water retention, aligned with key European water-related policy initiatives.

Technical and policy officers, professionals, and researchers can explore these measures and case studies for inspiration and practical examples.

The initial collection of measures and case studies originates from the “Pilot Project - Atmospheric Precipitation - Protection and efficient use of Fresh Water: Integration of Natural Water Retention Measures in River basin management” launched by the European Commission - Environment Directorate General (DG ENV) in 2013, initially available in the NWRM website. (See the Acknowledgement section below for more details.).

We aim at gradually expanding and updating this web section to reflect new EU policies, including the Nature Restoration Regulation, by revising and integrating key ecosystem benefits and monitoring indicators to track progress and effectiveness.
Stay tuned for updates!

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Measures

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Case studies

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Measure by sector

Click on the donut chart to filter by sector and discover the related measures available in the catalogue.

Multiple benefits of Nature based solutions for water retention

Nature based solutions for water retention have the potential to provide multiple benefits including the reduction of risk of floods and droughts, water quality improvement, groundwater recharge and habitat improvement.
The application of these measures supports green infrastructures, improves or preserves the quantitative status of surface water and groundwater bodies and can positively affect the chemical and ecological status of water bodies by restoring or enhancing natural functioning of ecosystems and the services they provide. The preserved or restored ecosystems can contribute both to climate change adaptation and mitigation.

The types of benefit provided by the ecosystem services are:

Provisioning of resources
Provisioning of resources
The availability of valuable resources for agriculture and other economic activities (water, fish and natural biomass) increases.
Regulatory and maintenance
Regulatory and maintenance
Biodiversity is preserved, pollutants are filtered and degraded both in the soil and in water bodies, flood risk is reduced, and erosion controlled.
Cultural
Cultural
Recreational opportunities, e.g. bird watching, hiking, are created. Landscape and its aesthetics improve.
Abiotic
Abiotic
Navigation, inert material exploitation, hydropower can be enhanced.

Summary tables of benefits by sector

Explore the catalogue of measures by numbers

Click on the charts to filter and open the catalogue of measures.

1Measures/ecosystem benefits2Benefits/sectors

Number of natural water retention measures per ecosystem services benefits

Number of benefits per measure across sectors and their relevance.

Acknowledgement

The catalogue of measure and the case studies have been defined and collected by a dedicated study, launched by DG ENV, entitled "Pilot Project - Atmospheric Precipitation - Protection and efficient use of Fresh Water: Integration of Natural Water Retention Measures in River basin management" (2013-2014). To read more about objectives andstakeholder involved visit the dedicated section in the NWRM.EU platform.

Read more and download the relavant reports from the NWRM portal of the project.

Go to NWRM portal