SWIM project aligns with the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters,” aiming to restore, protect, and enhance habitats of migratory fish species in the Danube River Basin and the Northwestern Black Sea region. By developing and implementing innovative, sustainable, and scalable solutions through 13 activities foreseen at 7 pilot sites, SWIM seeks to improve habitat connectivity, quality and conservation, and overall, the aquatic ecosystems health . The project will set new benchmarks in habitat restoration and actively contribute to the implementation of EU environmental policies through a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach. Building upon extensive past work in relevant projects such as MEASURES, WE PASS 1 and 2, SIMONA and the Danube Lighthouse projects DALIA, DaWetRest and Restore4Life, the SWIM consortium goes a step further in implementing actual complementary technologies (ex-situ restocking actions, hatchery recovery, fish passages, lateral reconnections, digital platform in articulation with MEASURES Info System and DTO, distributed Info centres, etc) in a wide range of freshwater streams (Danube and Tributaries). A key element of SWIM’s strategy is fostering transnational cooperation among diverse stakeholders and across different societal levels, co-designing joint solutions with governmental bodies, NGOs, researchers, and local communities, working through SWIM Alliance. This broad involvement aims to raise public support and ensure the long-term sustainability of the habitat restoration and protection measures , fostering biodiversity conservation, enhancing ecological resilience and the provision of ecosystem services, and thus promoting the socio-economic well-being of the local communities . SWIM’s comprehensive approach to ecological restoration and management has the potential to serve as a model for similar efforts across Europe and beyond, making a significant impact on the health and sustainability of aquatic ecosystems.

DANSER represents a multidisciplinary holistic and scientific based approach focused on the Danube River basin, a vital yet sensitive ecosystem facing climate change and human impacts. DANSER addresses pressing sediment management needs in the Danube River ecosystem, incorporating cutting-edge technologies and aligning with EU policies and directives. Especially attaining the core guidelines of the Danube Sediments Management Guidance. DANSER delivers a pilot phase and envisages the deployment phase, with a strong emphasis on demonstrating active and passive innovative solutions, such as a) spatio-temporal mapping of natural and anthropogenic fluvial processes, b) sediment transport modelling, (c) sediment dating by radionuclide and radiometric methods, d) historical pollution analysis (e) geophysical survey and 3D historical reconstruction of the demonstration sites, (f) river-groundwater dynamics and pollution transport modelling, (g) river processes forecast simulations based on historical and active processes, (h) sediment budget analysis based on sedimentation measuring stations, UAV and bathymetry surveys, (i) water levels and quality monitoring and analysis j) river-side arm hydrotechnical connectivity interventions, (k) stakeholder-engaged sediment parametric evaluation and co management and (l) Nature based solutions for biodiversity characterization monitoring and improvement. On the soft measures side, DANSER enforces proactively a transnational sediment task force, from cooperating with all related instances, and commits with local communities and citizens engagement, including participatory tools. DANSER seeks to restore sediment balance, improve sediment flow and quality, characterise pollution transport mechanisms and integrate such actions and knowledge with EU and worldwide counterparts while still sustaining local and regional economies. DANSER will contribute significantly to the create a sustainable and harmonious human-Danube relationships.

DAnube WETlands REStoration (DaWetRest) Lighthouse is designed to develop and demonstrate (pilot) concrete solutions applied on the Danube basin to address the challenges faced by its inland and coastal wetlands ecosystems’, namely on (i) biodiversity, (ii) water quality and availability, (iii) climate resilience and/or neutrality and (iv) socio-economic benefits for the local communities. These transformative and innovative solutions will be validated by local communities and main Regional and European-wide stakeholders. DaWetRest has the role to prepare and plan the replication, deployment and scaling up of the validated innovative solutions for the next mission’s phase. For this important scope, DaWetRest project proposes several strong ideas, such as (i) building and selecting interventions based on extensive and prior know-how (sibling sites and non-EU experiences), (ii) local, regional and basin scale integrated interdependent analysis of results from the planned interventions, (iii) merge DaWetRest own data, models and digital tools with existing and future ones, towards a centralized knowledge centre in the future and (iv) involve the managing authorities and a number of local actors in the entire process, from the very beginning. Thus, DaWetRest results will accelerate and generalize the deployment of innovative solutions in the second phase of the Mission. The demonstration of innovative and result-oriented solutions is organized in 3 DEMOs - DEMO Middle Danube (MD), DEMO Lower Danube (LD) and DEMO Danube Delta (DD). Each DEMO offers main intervention sites, pilots, sibling locations, replications, platforms/services, local stakeholders engagement and methodologies to strengthen the innovation, knowledge and cooperation in and beyond DaWetRest in Danube basin and across Europe. Via a widely representative consortium as well as active cooperation (e.g. Community of Practices), DaWetRest will provide tools for a significant transformation in the Danube.