The EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030” aims to restore the health of one of our most precious common goods: our ocean and waters. It will focus on restoring ecosystems and biodiversity, eliminating pollution, and making the blue economy carbon-neutral and circular. To achieve its challenging goals, four lighthouse areas were created in four major EU sea and river basins. These Mission Lighthouses are sites to pilot, demonstrate, develop, and deploy Mission activities across EU seas and river basins: Atlantic-Arctic, Mediterranean Sea, Baltic-North Sea, and Danube-Black Sea. Each of these lighthouses is coordinated by a CSA (Coordination and Support Action) project and accompanied by IA (Innovation Action) and RIA (Research and Innovation Action) projects. In addition, there are also projects that contribute to the Mission's objectives overarching these lighthouse areas.
Danube Lighthouse
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The Danube Lighthouse is one of the four Lighthouses within the Mission Ocean & Waters. It currently includes five projects: EcoDaLLi as Coordination and Support Action (CSA) and four Innovation Actions (IAs): DANUBE4all, DALIA, DaWetRest and Restore4Life.
DANUBE4all is an EU-funded Lighthouse project aimed at restoring freshwater ecosystems in the Danube River Basin through the development of an integrated, comprehensive Danube River Basin Restoration Action Plan. DANUBE4all constitutes an unprecedented co-creation process between scientists, researchers, SMEs, investors, public bodies, policymakers, and local communities.
DALIA is a Danube Lighthouse Innovation Action focusing on the Danube Floodplain area. 22 partners are working on 9 demo sites along the Danube to develop innovative freshwater solutions, improve water ecosystems, and facilitate decision-making on water management issues.
DaWetRest aims to develop and demonstrate concrete solutions applied in the Danube basin, to address the challenges faced by its inland and coastal wetland ecosystems. Through 3 demonstrators, these transformative and innovative solutions will be validated by local communities, stakeholders and 'associated regions', resulting in recommendations and new actions needed to improve the Danube wetlands, floodplains, coastal wetlands and salt marshes.
Restore4Life showcases the remarkable socio-economic benefits derived from a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to restoring freshwater and coastal wetlands in the Danube basin. By creating new blue-green infrastructure that bolsters regional climate change resilience and mitigation efforts, Restore4Life paves the way for a sustainable future.
Related Initiatives
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The EcoDaLLi project is collecting an inventory of innovative ecosystem-based practices and policies across the Danube Basin with a specific focus on Nature-Based solutions. The inventory is designed to serve as a collection of best-practice examples allowing for knowledge transfer across the basin. These are some initiatives listed in our inventory which will also be made available via the EcoDaLLi portal.