GENESIS

Groundwater represents the largest (and often the only practical) freshwater resource on oceanic islands. Due to the small area of many islands the amount of freshwater is limited, and it is particularly influenced by dynamic processes, including climate change. In the islands of Macaronesia any changes in climate conditions can have more severe negative effects on the available freshwater volume than in a continental environment, therefore, the protection of critical water infrastructure is of the highest priorities. The primary objective of GENESIS is to demonstrate that innovative, nature-based intelligent solutions for enhancing the climate resilience of critical water infrastructure can lead to more reliable and consistent/predictable water management practice by effectively protecting groundwater, by drastically improve the efficiency of water use and reuse, thus sustain social and economic activities while mitigating the potentially severe effects of climate change on local communities. The general concept of GENESIS is testing and showcasing local and regional NbS and delivering a deep demonstrator in the Macaronesian biogeographical area with the long term objective to provide climate-proof critical water infrastructure replicable for other islands and vulnerable zones of the EU mainland. The methodology is designed to provide the full workflow for implementing and demonstrating in operational environments how to capture, storage and protect water in an effective-strategic way (from diverse sources including storm runoff, treated wastewater and irrigation return flows) to mitigate the impacts of extreme events (droughts, floods, wildfires) and how to create climate resilient areas/islands. The development and implementation of systemic nature-based solutions for improved water management in Macaronesia will drastically improve these islands' resilience to climate change impacts by minimising stormwater runoff and soil erosion while enhancing infiltration and underground water storage.