SABICAS - Safeguard Biodiversity and improve Climate Adaptation in catchment areas under pressure: tools and Solutions - focus on river networks within catchments under pressure from a range of land uses, and how to convert parts of the current land use into resilient, (eco)functioning NBS using riparian zones, wetlands, and floodplains.
The overall objective of SABICAS is to provide the tools and knowledge needed to facilitate dialogue and decision-making among stakeholders and managers, and to overcome prioritization barriers. This will enable a faster transition towards green and sustainable solutions in river catchments with multiple conflicting interests. The SABICAS sub-objectives are:
- Identify how NBS can be used to resolve land use conflicts and advance our knowledge concerning how various aspects of NBS and EBM must be captured in the current river management to secure a sustainable future.
- Quantify impacts of catchment land use on biodiversity in Norwegian river ecosystems, and the interaction with climate change, including predictions of how future land use and climate scenarios may influence this.
- Develop an innovative catchment-based toolbox that optimizes the use of an effective NBS portfolio, aiming at safeguarding biodiversity and increasing climate adaptation (including risks to human society) while securing a gradual land use transition.
Two field cases are being used: Haldenvassdraget and the river Gausa in Gudbrandsdalen, which differ in natural conditions (climate, geology, biodiversity) as well as land use patterns. The NBS to be studied in more detail for the two field cases include riparian buffer zones between meadow and river and use of reclaimed floodlands (Gausa) and riparian buffer zones between cereal fields and river and reclaimed natural and constructed wetlands (Haldenvassdraget).
SABICAS has six work packages, in which NGI is responsible for WP3 "Safeguarding biodiversity and improving climate change adaptation using NBS".
For more information and progress about the SABICAS project, see the website (Norwegian text only) - https://www.sabicas.no/.
