The challenges for NCW governance in Europe: the need of a multi-scale and multi-actor approach to include NCW in strategic planning

The EU council has stablished clear the goals to strengthen territorial climate change resilience and adaptation. In this context, water scarcity scenario is only one of several challenges. Extreme weather events such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall, floods, and droughts are becoming more frequent and intense across Europe. To address these issues NCW emerges as a solution that can be implemented through different technologies and budgets. The Horizon AWARD EU project Demo Cases Cities as Milan, Cyprus, Bucharest and Santiago de Compostela, in very different contexts, represent a rich example of the implementation of NCW solutions through the SuDS of the Sponge City project, the improvement of tertiary treatment in the WPPT, the NBS construction to level the shallow layer of the aquifer and feed the lakes in public parks, or building artificial ponds and NBS to treat the polluted water in industrial areas.

However the performance of a NCW solution can certainly be assessed, the technical aspect alone is not enough to make it a solution. It requires appropriation by stakeholders. It also emphasizes that the problem cannot be solved individually. A common approach is necessary, raising the question of the mobilization of actors in political processes, the collective learning, the exchange of points of view and the mobilization of scientific and expert knowledge, as well as collective decision-making. Knowledge is key in each situation for the implementation of NCW solutions. To support this, the DST-TSD platform proposes a method which includes diagnosis, vulnerability assessment, prospective exercise, and deliberation. The deliberative approach is adopted to encourage stakeholder participation in governance processes and their engagement in developing adaptation strategies.

While the performance of a NCW solution can certainly be assessed, the technical aspect alone is not enough to make it a solution. It requires appropriation by stakeholders.  Even if takeholders may have an individual understanding of the situation, the problem definition is much broader and requires to consider the wide range of concerns raised by stakeholders. It also emphasizes that the problem cannot be solved individually. A common approach is necessary, thus raising the question of the mobilization of actors in political processes, the necessary collective learning, the exchange of points of view and the mobilization of scientific and expert knowledge, as well as collective decision-making. Knowledge is key in each situation for the implementation of NCW solutions. For this, the DST-TSD platform proposes a method which includes a diagnosis, a vulnerability assessment, a prospective exercise, and a deliberation matrix.  The deliberative approach is adopted to encourage stakeholder participation in governance processes and their engagement in developing adaptation strategies.