Major progress has been achieved in protecting European freshwaters through the successful implementation of urban wastewater treatment infrastructures but significant pressures still pose threats to the quality of the receiving water bodies. The recent evaluation of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive underlined that, in particular stormwater overflows including urban surface run-off and combined sewer overflows bring relevant pollutant loads into the aquatic environment. The pressure on water resources from those kinds of emissions is expected to aggravate through the impacts of global climate change with more frequent intense precipitation as well as more pronounced drought conditions. To address those challenges new ways in effectively mitigating pollution arising from urban run-off and sewer overflows are needed, providing effective load reduction, in a way affordable as well as acceptable to end-users and the society. The StopUP project will elucidate pollution pathways in urban catchments to enable targeted interventions through measures at source, retention and treatment. It will foster knowledge about emissions incl. pollutant release, transport and receiving water bodies through advanced monitoring concepts, online sensors and data processing and analysis. In the context of different case studies, innovative technologies for pollution prevention such as advanced retention soil filters for combined sewer overflow treatment which can be integrated better in urban areas will be further developed and tested. The tests will demonstrate integrated solutions including monitoring, treatment and control of diffusive pollution in different contexts concerning geographic, climatic and hydrological as well as socio-economic settings. Based on the findings, tools to support selection, implementation and operation of pollutant mitigation measures for end-users including environmental authorities, water boards/utilities, consultancies will be derived.

Microbiomes have high potential to improve biobased processes. For example, in soil and groundwater they can degrade organic contaminants, a process called bioremediation. In Europe about 324,000 severely contaminated sites exist, which pose a risk to humans and the environment. Conventional remediation technologies to clean them are often too expensive and technically Microbiomes have a high potential to improve processes in the bio-based industry. Like the microbiome in the gut, that supports the body in the digestion of food, microbiomes in environmental compartments like soil and groundwater can produce enzymes that can degrade organic contaminants caused by human activities. In MIBIREM we will develop a TOOLBOX that helps to better develop applications for microbiomes. The TOOLBOX includes molecular methods for a better understand and monitoring, isolation and cultivation techniques as well as quality criteria for deposition of whole microbiomes and last, but not least methods that are applied to improve specific functions of microbiomes like microbiome evolution and enrichment cultures and microcosm tests. The TOOLBOX is developed for the environmental applications of microbiomes for ‘bioremediation’. For that purpose, three use-cases were selected. In these three use-cases the degradation of organic contaminants in soil and groundwater by active microbiomes is investigated and developed. The three groups of contaminants are cyanides, hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) and petroleum hydrocarbons (PHC). The project starts with sampling of contaminated sites to isolate microbiomes active in degradation and to gain data for the development of a prediction tool that helps guide bioremediation. Isolated microbiomes and degrading strains will be deposited and will also be improved via laboratory evolution. Finally, the performance of the isolated microbiomes will be tested based on the gained knowledge about degrading microbiomes in pilot tests under real field conditions.

RECONECT aims to contribute to European reference framework on Nature Based Solutions (NBS) by demonstrating, referencing and upscaling large scale NBS and by stimulating a new culture for 'land use planning' that links the reduction of risks with local and regional development objectives in a sustainable way. To do that, RECONECT draws upon the network of carefully selected Demonstrators and Collaborators that cover a range of local conditions, geographic characteristics, governance structures and social/cultural settings to successfully upscale NBS throughout Europe and Internationally. The RECONECT consortium is a transdisciplinary partnership between researchers, industry partners (SMEs and large consultancies) and responsible agencies at the local and watershed/regional level dedicated to achieve the desired outcomes of the project.