Stimulating rivers restoration to enhance the quality of life

ongoing

Despite ambitious goals of the water related legislation, traditional engineering approaches, urbanization, agriculture, and water overuse continue to destroy river ecosystem functions and cause biodiversity loss, resulting in diminished provision of ecosystem services to people. As seen during recent catastrophic events in Slovenia, engineering is often not sufficient to prevent climate change driven floods and other solutions are needed. LIFE2RIVERS aims to initiate a transformative change in how we perceive, manage, and protect Slovenian rivers, a shift towards a co-creative river stewardship in which rivers will be maintained and/or restored for the benefit of nature and people. We will support public administration’s decision-making by challenging existing paradigms and public discourses through a range of targeted capacity building activities using a concept of co-creative river stewardship. Thus, we will support the goals of the European Green Deal, the Biodiversity strategy for 2030, the Water Framework Directive and all related legislation. First, we will enhance transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral cooperation through 4 training courses for engineers and field operatives and 3 webinars on nature based solutions (NBS) and river restoration (RR), an International Student Summer Camp, an International Conference and a Manual on co-creative river stewardship. Second, we will build capacity and trust in co-creative river stewardship, NBS and RR implementation projects among government, academia, and industry through 7 field excursions and by establishing an innovative communication form, the Chamber of Ecologists that will set professional and ethical standards for river management. Finally, we will remedy public participation by raising awareness, understanding and trust in NBS and RR by demonstrating co-creative river stewardship process in the Pšata catchment, organizing 24 EcoAdventure Days and distributing a thematic board game to all Slovenian schools.