BONSAI Project
BONSAI Project:
(Boosting flood resilience in estuarine systems anticipating shifting climate zones)
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.
Specific contribution of ESTP:
Within the "Soil Erosion" component, ESTP has the key mission of designing and constructing, with the support of the project partners, a new device dedicated to measuring soil erodibility, particularly that of flood defense structures. The data collected by this device will be correlated with those obtained from on-site tests and integrated into risk models to contribute to the assessment of the effectiveness of the flood defense solutions developed by the project. The development and deployment of this tool by ESTP will constitute a significant technical contribution for all the partners.
More information and updates: https://BONSAI.nweurope.eu
Financial support from Interreg NWE
BONSAI total budget: EUR 10.7 million
EU Interreg NWE program funding: EUR 6 .4 million
BONSAI start and end dates
Project start date: January 1st, 2025
Project end date: June 30th, 2029
BONSAI Project Partners: The BONSAI project brings together various partners: universities, public organizations, research centers, and water and flood experts. Among them are the Foundation for Applied Water Research (STOWA) – project coordinator, CEREMA, the University of Lille, the Dutch Ministry of Defense, and other European institutions. Together, they share their knowledge and resources to ensure the project's success.
Full partners list:
STOWA (lead partner) The Netherlands
Universität Siegen Germany
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium
Université de Lille France
RijkswaterstaatThe Netherlands
Departement Mobiliteit en Openbare Werken Belgium
HZ University of Applied Sciences The Netherlands
CEREMA France
Ministerie van Defensie The Netherlands
De Vlaamse Waterweg Belgium
Waterschap Noorderzijlvest The Netherlands
ISL Ingénierie France
Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier The Netherlands
ESTP – Grande école d’ingénieurs de la Construction France
Université Catholique de Louvain Belgium
Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek Belgium
Radboud UniversityThe Netherlands