Project – Naturebiopromo

Objectives and
research questions

NATUREBIOPROMO focus on understanding the ecological relevance of existent Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) and their importance in the mitigation of emerging contaminants (ECs) pollution while contributing to local biodiversity and their ecosystem services. For that, our project aims to do:

1 Assessment of real-scale spatial and temporal performance of various NBS (varying in climate regime and type) to evaluate their current ecological and socio-economic significance.

2 Seasonal and temporal characterizations of the biodiversity levels (microbiome & macrofauna) and their functional attributes on transcontinental scenarios subject to distinct spatial variability.

3 Evaluation of present and future contributions of NBS (i.e., before and after the implementation of an optimized solution), regarding biodiversity enrichment, reduction of ECs and nutrients, improvement of ecosystem services, and valorisation of vegetation products.

4 Implementation of optimized NBS, according to different local needs and contexts;

5 Valorisation of plant biomass for bioenergy production (biogas);

6 Reutilization of sub-products (biochar) for the own NBS, towards the circular economy concept.

7 Implementation of a collaborative approach between scientists, local stakeholders (e.g. water and constructed wetlands (CW) managers, municipalities), and citizens, since the beginning of the project; Identifying concerns and opportunities towards the optimal solution.

Main activities of
the project

Work Packages description

WP1 - Methodologies Standardization

AIMS: To supply the techniques to generate the necessary and unified set of information for evaluating the conditions of the chosen case studies both before and following the implementation of optimized NBS.

WP2 - Evaluation of the wastewater treatment efficiency of the NBS case studies

AIMS: To evaluate the wastewater treatment efficiency of the studied NBS for ECs, assessing a) water quality, b) substrate quality, c) biodiversity, and d) plant dynamics.

WP3 - Enhancing Biodiversity and EC Removal in NBS: Evaluating Toxicological Effects on Non-Target Species

AIMS: 1) to identify the limitations of the existing case-studies NBS in terms of EC removal; 2) to create a list of potential enhancement methods and the decision-making scheme to implement them for a specific case; 3) evaluate the benefits of the enhancement methods regarding EC removal and biodiversity; 4) evaluate the toxicological effects of the optimized treated effluents versus non-optimized effluents in non-target model species.

WP4 - Valorisation of CWs sub-products

AIMS: to 1) assess the viability of using the plant biomass for the production of biogas and biochar. 2) promote energy neutrality of the CWs by using plant-waste material; 3) optimize the biogas production process to maximize energy yield while minimizing environmental impact.

WP5 - Socio-economics analyses

AIMS: Techno-economic sustainability (TEA) and social aspects of proposed hybrid solutions will be analysed based on experimental results and data or assumptions from previous works of the involved researchers. A fully holistic approach will be adopted for assessing the techno-economic sustainability and social acceptance aspects of studied scenarios. TEA and social analysis will be conducted in a multi-country experiment, following a life cycle thinking approach.

WP6 - Communication, training and dissemination

AIMS: a) disseminate and communicate the outcomes of the project to all interested parties, from stakeholders to end-users (i.e., policymakers, governments, industry, citizens and the scientific community); b) organize training courses and talks to school children, post-graduate students and society in general, to disseminate the importance of biodiversity conservation on the mitigation of anthropogenic impacts; c) promote environmental literacy, and d) engage policymakers and decision makers along the project highlighting the ecological and socio-economic benefits of biodiversity conservation and improvement of green methodologies.

WP7 - Coordination and data management

AIMS: to coordinate the project with the involvement of the consortium; allowing effective communication and sharing of knowledge between researchers and stakeholders to guarantee the success of the project.

Objectives andresearch questions

NATUREBIOPROMO focus on understanding the ecological relevance of existent Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) and their importance in the mitigation of emerging contaminants (ECs) pollution while contributing to local biodiversity and their ecosystem services. For that, our project aims to do:

1

Assessment of real-scale spatial and temporal performance of various NBS (varying in climate regime and type) to evaluate their current ecological and socio-economic significance.

2

Seasonal and temporal characterizations of the biodiversity levels (microbiome & macrofauna) and their functional attributes on transcontinental scenarios subject to distinct spatial variability.

3

Evaluation of present and future contributions of NBS (i.e., before and after the implementation of an optimized solution), regarding biodiversity enrichment, reduction of ECs and nutrients, improvement of ecosystem services, and valorisation of vegetation products.

4

Implementation of optimized NBS, according to different local needs and contexts;

5

Valorisation of plant biomass for bioenergy production (biogas);

6

Reutilization of sub-products (biochar) for the own NBS, towards the circular economy concept.

7

Implementation of a collaborative approach between scientists, local stakeholders (e.g. water and constructed wetlands (CW) managers, municipalities), and citizens, since the beginning of the project; Identifying concerns and opportunities towards the optimal solution.

Main activities ofthe project