SpongeWorks' main objective is to demonstrate practical, effective, economically feasible and socially inclusive integrated approaches and sustainable solutions that enhance the sponge functioning of interconnected ground-water, soil, and surface water systems at the regional scale. There are 28 knowledge institutes, governmental organizations and NGOs involved in Germany, Greece, France, Netherlands and UK involved in ‘’SpongeWorks - Co-creating and Upscaling Sponge Landscapes by Working with Natural Water Retention and Sustainable Management’’. The evaluation and implementation of sponge measures in three large demonstrators (the Pinios (GR), Lèze (FR) and Vecht (NL/DE) River Basins and transferring approaches and lessons learnt through an action plan and roadmap to at least eight associated regions and beyond to the wider EU SpongeWorks Academy is aimed at.
Despite recognition that improving the water retention capacity of landscapes – here called ‘sponge functioning’- is a suitable method to help make society more resilient to climate change, implementation of such a methods is still lagging. This is due to a lack of system understanding and proof, a lack of knowledge at the stakeholder level on the potential impact and direct and indirect socio-economic benefits, a lack of effective and sustainable governance in close collaboration with all stakeholders involved in landscape and water management, and a lack of well-functioning institutional settings that stimulate integrated adaptive planning, design and implementation.
It is therefore imperative that active demonstration of the potential benefits of increasing the sponge functioning of landscapes is needed. SpongeWorks emphasizes the need for planning, implementation, and management together with all relevant stakeholders. CSTM is facilitating the work upon effective and sustainable governance, stakeholder management and appropriate institutional settings that stimulate integrated adaptive planning, design and implementation of the needed measures.