BONSAI: Boosting flood resilience in estuarine systems anticipating shifting climate zones

Working Towards Proactive and Adaptive Flood Protection in North-West Europe

BONSAI aims to make flood defence systems in tidal estuaries of western Europe more resilient in the short and long term to climate change by learning from sites in different climate zones throughout Europe and by developing and sharing pro-active and responsive measures. Building capacity allows organisations responsible for flood resilience and societal partners in tidal estuaries in western Europe, to strengthen their resilience in case extreme weather brings the threat of flooding.

Resilient flood protection systems

Rijkswaterstaat benefits from and contributes to the BONSAI-project by sharing and co-developing knowledge on the topics of Nature-based Solutions, animal burrows, disaster management and erosion.

The benefits are exercised in our goal of maintaining flood protection systems, making them resilient to weather conditions, now and in the future.

Shifting climate zones

Today’s climates in southern regions are tomorrow’s climates in northern regions. Current flood emergency responses in northern regions are what southern regions can expect in the future. By sharing embankment management practices, the Estuarine Region of western Europe could improve its overall resilience to climate change.

Improved resilience through knowledge sharing

The results of pilot schemes and training will enable the BONSAI-partners to jointly develop and embed a transnational strategy for improved resilience to predicted and other climate change effects on flood defence systems in the estuaries of North-West Europe. This also applies to the 3 action plans below:

1. short-term flood defence robustness
2. long-term resilience
3. disaster management

The project aims to provide guidance for the future, using existing as well as newly developed knowledge.

Main results

The intended main results are:

1. A transnational strategy for national authorities and three action plans for regional and local authorities.
2. Five solutions for increasing robustness, resilience, and disaster management.
3. Multiple training schemes and courses on flood disaster management and flood resilience, as well as one joint transnational flood academy.

BONSAI aims to apply a holistic approach focusing on short- and long-term flood defense system resilience and improved disaster management. Different North-West Europe (NWE) countries address these challenges from their own perspectives.

Transnational cooperation between NWE regions and beyond is essential because estuarine systems and climate change transcend borders, offering opportunities for mutual learning and building resilience.

The BONSAI approach is unique in that it:

1. bridges the three layers of the multi-layer water safety approach (prevention, disaster management, and spatial planning);
2. simulates shifting climate zones based on insights from southern regions applied to northern regions; and
3. focuses on increased cooperation between countries so they can learn from each other (the north can learn from the south, and the south can learn from the north).

Budget

EU Funding European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) € 6.419.736,62 & total budget €10.699.561,10

EU Funding ERDF to Rijkswaterstaat €415.673,12 & total Rijkswaterstaat €692.788,54

Project period

January 2025 - June 2029

European Programme

Interreg North-West Europe

Project Website

BONSAI

Partners

STOWA (NL), Universität Siegen (DE), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (BE), Université de Lille (FR), Departement Mobiliteit en Openbare Werken (BE), HZ University of Applied Sciences (NL), CEREMA (FR), Ministerie van Defensie (NL), De Vlaamse Waterweg (BE), Waterschap Noorderzijlvest (NL), ISL Ingénierie (FR), Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier (NL), ESTP - Grande école d’ingénieurs de la Construction (FR), Université Catholique de Louvain (BE), Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek (BE), Radboud University (NL).