PHUSICOS

PHUSICOS, meaning ‘According to nature’ in Greek, demonstrates how nature-based solutions (NBSs) provide robust, sustainable and cost-effective measures for reducing the risk of extreme weather events in rural mountain landscapes. Although mountains amplify risks, and even more so under extreme weather events, mountainous regions do not receive the same attention as densely populated urban areas in European disaster risk reduction plans. PHUSICOS’s underlying premise is that nature itself is a source of ideas and solutions for mitigating the risk posed by climate-driven natural hazards. However, there is a lack of adequate proof of concept for NBSs to address hydro-meteorological events in rural and mountainous regions. PHUSICOS will fill the knowledge gap specifically related to NBSs for hydro-meteorological hazards (flooding, erosion, landslides and drought) by implementing NBSs at several European case study sites. These sites comprise 3 large-scale demonstrator sites Italy, Frane/Spain/Andorra and Norway; and 2 small-scale complementary concept cases in Austria and Germany. The three demonstrator sites are representative of hydro-meteorological hazards, vegetation, topography and infrastructure throughout rural and mountainous regions in Europe. They have already guaranteed external financing and are currently in the process of implementing disaster risk reduction measures that are open to broader implementation of NBSs through the application of the PHUSICOS key innovation actions. The concept cases will be used for testing innovative ideas at local scale. PHUSICOS relies on a transdisciplinary consortium of 15 partners from seven European Countries, with expertise from public authorities, research institutes and universities to develop innovative actions on five fronts: technical, service, governance, learning arena and product innovations. PHUSICOS will also utilise the experience of three international partners and results of European research projects.

• The case study sites comprise three large-scale demonstrator sites and two supporting concept cases. Together, they represent a broad range of stages with regard to the implementation of NBSs with the demonstrator sites currently in the planning and implementation of risk mitigation measures in 2018. Since the case studies form the backbone of PHUSICOS, over 45% of the PHUSICOS budget is dedicated to the implementation of NBSs at the case study sites.
• Stakeholder participation through Living Labs.
• A comprehensive framework for assessment of NBSs in context of natural hazard risk mitigation and ecosystem services monitoring to strengthen the evidence regarding the effectiveness of NBSs, thereby:

(i) narrowing the gap between research and practice in the design of NBSs;

(ii) reducing the uncertainty in performance of NBSs under extreme events; and

(iii) and providing solid evidence for comparing and integrating them with the traditional grey engineered solutions and other risk reduction measures, also considering residual risk.

• An analysis of EU policy for enabling NBS as implemented by national, regional and local governments.
• Comprehensive state-of-the-art evidence-base and data platform concerning NBSs related to extreme hydro-meteorological events in rural mountain landscapes. The established platform will be provided as a service product for the market. This activity builds on the process for establishing an evidence-base as recommended by the Expert Group for NBSs.
• Training programmes.