Dondo Side Arm, Sombor, Serbia - Sombor Municipality, Branislav

Human land-use, control and exploitation interventions severely damage ecological and climate
adaptation conditions of riverine landscapes. Regulation of riverbeds, cutting of floodplains and
exchange of natural banks and riparian habitats with built surfaces and industrial flow control
devices, fatally deteriorate water retention capacities and adversely affect the climate change
adaptation potential of these areas and systems.
RESTORIVER increases climate adaptation capacities of riversides and riparian areas - potentially
reducing risk of droughts, floods and heatwaves - by harmonising, adapting and connecting higher
level water management, climate adaptation and flood protection policies with local interventions,
effectively serving complex, transnational water and climate adaptation systems and stakeholder
networks.
To meet these ambitions, the project joins water management, climate and nature conservation
policy and knowledge institutions along the Danube and its tributaries, who explore multiple climaterelated,
social, economic and ecological benefits of natural water-retention measures (NWRM) and
target key stumbling blocks of their Danube basin-wide application, identify and design feasible, high
impact interventions, and implement pilot actions to test climate resilient approaches with the
highest demonstration potential. When identifying pilot locations, preference is given to urban
/periurban areas - not only exposed to a higher concentration of users and polluters but also
demonstrating positive effects of ecosystem based approaches to citizens, stakeholders,
implementers and policymakers, physically connected to these river sections.
Activities are upscaled by sharing knowledge, demonstrating benefits of NWRM, formulating
recommendations for integrated planning and support decision making processes, as well as by
widespread capacity-building, awareness raising and engagement of stakeholders, practitioners and
citizens in urban contexts and beyond.