BONSAI: Boosting flOod resilieNce in estuarine Systems

BONSAI is an Interreg North-West Europe project where 17 organisations from four European countries work closely together to make flood defense systems more resilient against climate change.

Objectives

BONSAI aims to make flood defence systems in tidal estuaries of NWE more short and long term resilient against climate change by learning from sites in different climate zones over Europe and developing and sharing pro-active and responsive measures. Organisations responsible for flood resilience and societal partners in tidal estuaries in NWE are empowered through capacity building to strengthen their resilience and better act in case of flood threats caused by extreme weather events.

Results

Based on results of pilot actions and training schemes, the partners of BONSAI will jointly develop and embed a transnational strategy for improved resilience against foreseen and unforeseen effects of climate change on flood defence systems in the estuaries of NW Europe and jointly develop and embed three action plans on 1. short term flood defence robustness 2. long term resilience and 3. disaster management. The project envisions to provide guidance for the future, using existing as well as newly developed knowledge.

BONSAI will jointly develop and validate transnationally: 2 short term flood defence robustness solutions, 2 long term increased resilience of flood defence systems solutions and a solution for enhancing disaster management for flood risk related disasters. Towards the end of the project, the solutions will be fully implemented by our 6 flood risk management project partners and available for other authorities responsible for flood risk management.

BONSAI will jointly increase the capacity of flood resilience experts, disaster management organisations, young professionals, and next generation flood resilience experts by 1. developing and executing multiple training schemes on flood disaster management, 2. courses on short term flood defence robustness and long term flood resilience in curricula and 3. working on a transnational community of practice in the form of a flood academy, including field training during pilot actions.