Acronym: BEWARE

Title: BEtter Water-management for Advancing Resilient-communities in Europe

Call: LIFE

Duration: 03/09/2018 - 30/06/2022 (46 months)

Coordinator: COMSAN - Comune di Sant'Orso (IT)

Total EU Contribution: €  2.103.964,00

TESAF Budget: €  445.017,00

Responsible Scientific Officer/Investigator: Vincenzo D'Agostino

Research Team: Vincenzo D'Agostino, Lucia Bortolini, Edi Defrancesco, Francesco Pagliacci, Francesco Bettella, Roberta Pastorello, Giulio Fusco, Simone Mergiotti

Brief description: The main project objective is the achievement of a global strategy for climate adaptation to flood risk increasing water infiltration and storage in urban and rural areas and involving the local communities actively. BEWARE project aims to increase knowledge, benefit and real implementation of NWRM (Natural Water Retention Measures) both in the territory of COMSAN and COMMAR (Vicenza, Veneto Region, IT) and other EU municipalities thanks to demonstrative interventions fully coordinated with activities of information, communication and education. Specific objectives are: 1. Promoting a participative approach to implement local initiatives and measures on waterretention actions facing the climate change's challenges. 2. Establishing a local administrative, financial, and technical context favorable to the diffuse employment of NWRM. 3. Enhancing the link between European policies and local contexts actively involving citizens and key-stakeholders on the EU goals on climate change. 4. Demonstrating that small diffused works and implementation of best practices can guarantee hydraulic safety and face climate-change consequences effectively. 5. Favoring the replication of the actions proposed in other geographic areas of Italy and Europe. The project is innovative for the Communities because is focused to tackle the flood issue on a new participatory perspective. The project promotes a set of low-cost works that municipalities, farms or citizens can manage easily. Although in several European Countries a sustainable water-retention approach is still developing, in Italy and in Veneto Region a tremendous delay exists. Similar defective situations are common around Europe (see collected letters of support). In short, the modern waterretention techniques need rapidly (Flood Directive, art.7) to be translated into practice on the EU territory. The participation is the key to develop a favorable background for effective climateadaptation's initiatives. Through an active involvement, BEWARE wants to promote a widespread responsibility for facing hydraulic risks and implementing a global best-practice context. Indeed, the strategy can also be a shortcut to ensure social acceptance of a more sustainable land-use planning. Although the NWRM are technically mature, they are poorly spread in Veneto Region and other European countries. Therefore the action panel of BEWARE is a virtuous example, voted to trigger a positive trend in the NWRM employment.

Website: https://www.lifebeware.eu/