ACTIONS AND MEANS INVOLVED

To achieve the above objectives a partnership composed of the responsible national governmental bodies, professional NGOs and for-profit organisations and five local governments has been set up.

The 5 partner municipalities will be the pilot sites, where small-scale NWRM interventions in CCA will be developed and tested. We will prepare model solutions for the different typical water risks, amplified by climate change Hungarian municipalities face.

Besides, 23 other municipalities are involved in the project as external cooperating partners and primary target group of capacity building and replication activities. At least 5 transfer sites (in addition to the 5 pilot sites) will be chosen from them, where plans for the replication of the demonstrated NWRM models will be adopted.

To foster the upscaling of our NWRM solutions to the watershed level, we will use GIS-based runoff and infiltration modelling and prepare feasibility studies of NWRM on catchment level. These “master plans” will be agreed and taken up by catchment level partnerships that will be built around the 5 pilot sites, involving stakeholders (e.g. other municipalities, responsible public administration bodies, land users and business actors in the supply chains).

We will address all the 3177 local governments of Hungary to increase their knowledge and coordination capacity in CCA by:

• Publishing an Adaptation Guide with focus on ecosystem-based methods
• Deploying 2 online tools that help to understand and tackle water risks (the Hungarian version of the global Water Risk Filter of WWF incorporating national datasets, and a newly developed interactive learning and networking tool that help implementation of NWRM concepts, evaluating options, finding service providers and financing possibilities)
• Creating an e-learning platform and knowledge sharing website
• Delivering trainings on CCA, NWRM, and municipalities’ coordinating roles and means in CCA
• General awareness raising and dissemination activities

We will support knowledge exchange and cooperation with European municipalities by:

• 5 study trips to learn from European NWRM cases
• Cooperation and exchange programme between AoCFM and other Supporting Organisations of the Covenant of Mayors
• Promote the CoM and support interested local governments to become a member

Finally, the project will deliver recommendations to the government for the improvement of the legal environment to strengthen the coordination role of municipalities in CCA.