The project is co-funded from the European Commission (Grant Agreement reference 690462) 
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| | The Dutch city of Nijmegen is becoming well-known because of its planning approach that combines large scale climate adaptation measures with a strong emphasis on spatial quality.
Nijmegen is situated along the Waal river, one of Europe’s largest transport and ecological corridors. More than 250M euro has been spent on a new bypass of the Waal, called the Mirror Waal, one of the major urban examples of the Dutch Room for the River project.
This e-zine shows the Mirror Waal project. From awareness of upcoming flooding risks, via complex planning and design efforts into the final result, including innovative ecological engineering, new sport activities and spontaneous festivals.
In the metropolitan area of Valencia the water use is intense and the region suffers from frequent droughts due to climate conditions.
Valencia is surrounded by an agricultural landscape with deep cultural significance and with a multi-sectoral structure in which irrigated agriculture plays an important role in the consumption of water.
The Albufera Natural Park, less than 10 km south of Valencia, is a freshwater lagoon and its surroundings rice plots.
Given the predicted adverse effects of climate change, it is important for the City of Valencia to develop adaptation strategies for the future climate.
The mandate for the INNOVA project is to develop a climate service that satisfies the water use needs to support the distribution of potable water to its users.
Hub Kiel Bay on the Baltic shore of Germany, one of the most important tourist hotspots in the region. An essential element of its attractiveness to the seasonal influx of tourists is its sandy beaches.
Changes to the character of the beach, and the beach experience, can therefore have an impact on tourism. Beach wrack is amix of algae and seaweed that is naturally washed onto the beach.
This e-zine describes the effects and opportunities of beach wrack washed up on shores of Kiel Bay.
Beaches with large volumes of beach wrack generally considered, by tourists, to be “dirty”, which detracts from its attraction. “Dirty” or unattractive beaches attract fewer visitors, and reduces economic activity associated with a beach experience, i.e. food sales, canopy and chair rentals, hotel accommodation, etc.
As a result, local communities on the Kiel Bay remove beach wrack in the tourist season on a daily basis. The INNOVA project is investigating whether this natural process is being affected by climate change and at the same time show solutions how this material can be regarded as a resource.
The fourth INNOVA e-zine presents the activities and background of Guadeloupe and Martinique as part of the INNOVA project.
These French West-Indies islands (FWI) are investigating solutions to reduce their vulnerability to global climate change.
During the last decades, the FWI were subject to many and intense climate impacts on agricultural production.
This e-zine continues the INNOVA project narrative describing the four projects ’hubs’.
The previous e-zines focused on the Mirror Waal project in the Nijmegen area (the Netherlands); the water management issues in the Valencia metropolitan area (Spain), and the beach resources and environmental problems of the Kiel Bay (Germany).
This e-zine highlights the environmental and climatic challenges related to the agro-ecological transition of predominantly banana and sugar cane production, to more sustainable and locally important crops for Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Even so, both these crops are important contributors to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the FWI.
Kaohsiung is a tropical city in the South of Taiwan. It is one of the three larger Taiwan cities. It is a major international port and industrial city in the southwest of Taiwan. Kaohsiung has a land area of approximately 3000 square kilometers. It accommodates a population of over 2.77 million people; 2 million of them live in the metropolitan area.
The city is known for its industries and harbor, Love River, agriculture, mountains and history:
The tropic metropole Kaohsiung already faces a wide variety of disasters. The influence of climate change makes them even more complex.
Beach wrack is primarily made up of seagrass and algae that has come loose from where it grows offshore and has washed up along the beach. This is often seen as nuisance for coastal communities and beach tourists, not only at the German Baltic Sea, but also in many other coasts around the world. However, there is also another side of this environment issue, where beach wrack can be seen as opportunity. Especially as part of the circular economy, where beach wrack can be used for different and beneficial purposes. This means a shift of perception is needed; from risk to opportunity.
This E-Zine highlighted some of the potential usage of beach wrack, and also explains the uncertainties of the availability and distribution of beach wrack as a resource as the climate is changing.
The E-Zine also reports on the progress of the INNOVA project: Activities in the projects are presented, such as first results from an expert workshop and the presentation of a video series dealing with seagrass and beach wrack, called ‘Seagrass & Co’.
The international examples will span from the Baltic Sea, where two research projects present their latest findings. It will also highlight the final conference of the POSIMA beach wrack project, where in cooperation with INNOVA English versions of the video series ‘Seagrass & Co.’ were made available.
Fresh water is a vital resource for human life – not just for drinking, but also for agriculture, washing and many other activities.
Water is among the key natural resources that is going to suffer from the impact of climate change. Some of the main questions that the water sector is forced to answer are how to improve the efficiency of water treatment and supply facilities; how to face different extreme weather conditions, such as drought or flooding scenarios; and how to increase the ratio of reused water.
Analysing the effect of climate change in the water cycle is also required to start developing tools that will assist decision making.
The five INNOVA hubs all have different issues and challenges related to climate change impacts and adaptation. Past Ezines have already introduced the specific climate related characteristics of the five innovation hubs: Kiel Bay in Germany, Nijmegen in The Netherlands, Valencia in Spain, Guadeloupe and Martinique in the French West-Indies, and Kaohsiung in Taiwan. Following Ezines described the implementation of climate services in these hubs.
The French West Indies (Guadeloupe and Martini-que), as one of the INNOVA hubs, are representative for other Small Island States around the globe. Even though Small Island States are distinct in their geographical, biophysical, socio-economic and cultural characteristics, they share common challenges with respect to risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
With this Ezine we want to highlight the need for specific climate services, which are tailored to the needs of Small Island States and account for their specific challenges for climate adaptation.
A case-study example from Zanzibar will present the usage of newest technology to identify areas affected by salt-water intrusion and sea inundation – a challenge, which is common to many Small Island States.