Adaptation to climate change: Revegetation to recover hydrological cycles as an ecosystem service

Ecosystem-based adaptation is recognized by the international community as a powerful, cost-effective tool to increase the resilience and reduce the vulnerability of ecosystems and people to the adverse effects of climate change. It can generate significant social, economic and environmental co-benefits with an important role in adaptation of diverse sectors such as agriculture and food security, coastal, forestry and water management, disaster risk reduction, health and energy.

Hydrological cycles in many regions of Europe have already suffered significant changes due to climate change. Solutions, such as reforestation or modification of current farming managements, have been tested as a way to recover these hydrological cycles. Cross-sectorial policy development is necessary in order to effectively implement such ecosystem based adaptation solutions. This requires a close interaction between researchers and policy makers and the involvement of diverse stakeholders on a discussion on how to best take advantage of ecosystem services to improve adaptation to a changing climate.

Workshop aim:

The main aim of this workshop is to create a network of knowledge between researchers, practitioners, stakeholders and policymakers in Europe about the relation between land use and the water cycle in order to develop practical solutions for certain European regions where climate change will have important impacts on the hydrological cycle, such as droughts. Additionally, the workshop will aim to exploit available results from EC-funded research projects to explore solutions to recover some hydrological cycles.