BEWARE Newsletter
Issue #10 - October 2021

BEWARE project (BEtter Water Management for Advancing Resilient Communities in Europe), co-funded by the European Union LIFE Programme aims to improve hydraulic safety and territorial resilience in Altovicentino area, Vicenza Province (Italy).

It promotes the adoption of sustainable interventions through a participatory approach that actively involves interested stakeholders, encouraging them to adopt actions to reduce flood damages caused by the heavy rains that increasingly occur in the territory.

Once again, this year the LIFE Beware project will be presented as a case study at the master’s degree course in Manager of sustainable local development!

The 1st Level Master proposed by the University of Padua for the second year in a row, is aimed at structuring the professional profile of manager of local development governance networks and of project design of integrated policies of sustainable local development in the European multi-level perspective. It also aims at developing and strengthening the multidisciplinary applicative competences of the participants in order to make them able to operate consciously and proactively within the complexity of the processes of sustainable development of the territory and of social innovation. Only 30 places available! →

ZERO Pollution. LIFE Beware project joins European Green Week

From May 31st to June 13th the European Green Week took place, an opportunity to raise awareness and knowledge of how pollution affects us all and an initiative to discuss with all interested parties and citizens how to work together to make the goal of a zero-pollution, toxic-free environment a reality. In this framework also the LIFE Beware project brought its contribution through the online webinar "Natural Resources Management and Pollution Reduction: Sharing best practices at the local, national and international level” built to share experiences on sustainable management of natural resources in order to reduce pollution and increase territorial resilience to climate change. →

LIFE BEWARE joins the platform meeting "The changing climate" promoted by the Mettiamoci in RIGA (MiTE) project

On 22 September 2021 the LIFE Beware project took part in the working tables of the PLATFORM MEETING "The changing climate" Experiences, good practices, innovative solutions promoted by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and addressed to representatives of Regions and Autonomous Provinces, just a few weeks before the big global events such as the PreCop and the Youth COP that will culminate with the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties in Glasgow. A plenary session with a round table and four subsequent working tables where Francesco Bettella, professor at the TESAF Department of the University of Padua, illustrated the LIFE Beware project and its potential with the speech "Better water management to promote resilient communities in Europe". →

The Festival "The shape of water. Territories. Resilience.Community" came to an end.

A week of meetings, conferences, performances, screenings, photo exhibitions and much more, which gave voice to experts, artists, professionals, with well-known names such as Telmo Pievani and Mauro Varotto, Banda Osiris, Mario Tozzi, was held between Santorso and Marano Vicentino from 20 to 26 September 2021. The Festival "The Shape of Water", which focused on the need to collectively develop effective resilience strategies to the increasingly devastating consequences of the epochal climate change that the world is witnessing with the involvement of local communities, proved to be a great success with about a thousand participants. The LIFE Beware Project, which made the Festival "The shape of water" possible, continues! →

NATURAL WATER RETENTION MEASURES FOR HYDRAULIC RISK MITIGATION: What are green roofs?

This interesting article explains what some of the natural water retention measures for hydraulic risk mitigation can be, in simple words green roofs! Natural Water Retention Measures - NWRMs are interventions, generally of small size and low cost, that are adopted to ensure sustainable management of water resources, favouring the reduction of hydraulic risk in man-made environments.Through the adoption of these measures, the LIFE Beware project promotes, with technical and demonstrative value, the use of these strategies for hydraulic safety and good management of water resources in urban and agricultural areas! →

Students from Alto Vicentino visit the works realised by the LIFE Beware project

At the end of May 2021, half a thousand enthusiastic young people were involved in the awareness-raising activities carried out by the environmental guides of the Ecotopia cooperative on climate change, the consequences suffered at local level and the prevention and mitigation actions implemented thanks to the LIFE Beware Project. Students and their teachers from the "Pasini" technical institute and the "Il Tessitore" comprehensive school in Schio and the "San Gaetano" in Thiene, already protagonists of the meetings held between April and May, with even more enthusiasm and wonder participated in the educational bicycle tours to discover the basins, rain gardens, green roofs and rain barrels. →

Green urban development: why Stockholm can teach us a great deal!

Cities around the world are currently at the forefront of tackling climate change. Sweden's capital, Stockholm, is trying to lead the way as a global model for the green transition. As the urban population grows, common challenges range from housing supply, energy, waste and transport. Stockholm is a prime example of how urban innovation can foster entrepreneurship. The city is providing test beds for climate-smart ideas and enabling companies to scale up low-carbon solutions. In this context, by having a continuous dialogue with the people of Stockholm and also considering aspects such as feminist urban planning, the hope of the local authorities is to bring about real, long-term sustainable behavioural changes by ensuring that both men and women feel involved in this growth. →

CREATING A NETWORK AMONG PROJECTS

The LIFE Programme of the European Union is co-funding a wide variety of projects that involve public and private entities, civil society organisations and other stakeholders, in the implementation of measures and strategies for climate change adaptation. The LIFE BEWARE project is committed to building a network of projects

and initiatives for soil conservation, sustainable management of natural resources, promotion of environmental governance, biodiversity conservation and much more. In the section below, three important projects about the sustainable use of soil and flood risk mitigation are presented!

LIFE METROADAPT

Metro Adapt is co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union and it is aimed at mainstreaming climate change adaptation strategies in the Metropolitan Area of Milan. More specifically, the project aims at fostering the creation of a common well-structured governance related to climate change adaptation among the local authorities and produce tools that allow administrations to implement cost-effective climate change adaptation strategies and policies adapted to the local context. →

LIFE ADAPTA BLUES

"Coastal areas are particularly vulnerable to climate change (CC) due to their exposure to sea level rise (SLR) and to extreme weather events. Some estuarine ecosystems, such as saltmarshes, seagrass meadows and oyster reefs, protect coastal areas from erosion and flooding, by buffering water currents and wave energy and by adapting to sea level rise through sediment accretion and soil elevation. In addition, they support multiple other ecosystem services relevant for coastal communities, such as water quality maintenance, biodiversity and fisheries support, recreational and aesthetic values and carbon sequestration. The project LIFE Adapta Blues aims to support the integration of estuarine ecosystems conservation and restoration among Climate Change adaptation strategies in the European Atlantic coast by providing different technical tools and exploring potential financial mechanisms." →

This newsletter has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union under the LIFE. The contents of it are the sole responsibility of the LIFE BEWARE Consortium and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.