AI Insight
Three EU-funded projects (SpongeBoost, SpongeWorks, and SpongeScapes) have published a joint policy brief recommending strategies to restore Europe's natural "sponge function"—the capacity of soils, wetlands, forests, and floodplains to absorb, store, and gradually release water. The brief addresses increasing water and climate resilience challenges in Europe, where degraded soils, drained catchments, and wetland loss are intensifying both droughts and floods. The projects combine policy guidance, scientific evidence, and practical implementation approaches to strengthen landscape-level water management across the continent.
Why it matters
Restoring natural water retention capabilities in European landscapes could help mitigate the increasing severity of both droughts and floods caused by climate change and land degradation. The policy recommendations provide actionable guidance for EU policymakers to improve water security and climate adaptation through nature-based solutions.
Understand the Science
Europe’s water and climate resilience is under increasing pressure, with degraded soils, drained catchments and the loss of wetlands intensifying droughts and contributing to more destructive floods. In response, the EU-funded projects SpongeBoost, SpongeWorks and SpongeScapes have published a joint policy brief, “Achieving Better Implementation of EU Policies by Restoring the Sponge Function.” The brief provides recommendations to strengthen Europe’s water and climate resilience by restoring the natural sponge function of landscapes—the ability of soils, wetlands, forests and floodplains to absorb, store and slowly release water. Together, the three sister projects combine policy guidance, scientific evidence and real-world implementation to advance sponge landscapes across Europe.
Source: New policy brief outlines how EU policies can better support sponge restoration