This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon EUROPE research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 101180636

The WATERGRID Project is an initiative under the European Union’s Horizon Europe program. It consists of a collection of 22 partners from 13 countries led by the Westcountry Rivers Trust to explore the concept of storing more water in the landscape to combat droughts through the creation of a Smart Water Grid. This is where nature based solutions such as ponds, lakes and wetlands are installed as “water batteries” to hold and store more water on farm land. These features would store excess water, such as winter and storm rainfall, where the past principles have been to get rid of water as quickly as possible.

The projects main goals are to address the issue of increasing water scarcity and extreme droughts by developing and implementing Smart Water Grids in 5 countries to understand the implications for European role out.

Key aspects of this project include:

• Smart Water Grids (SWGs): These are systems that treat the water cycle holistically, much like an energy grid, integrating various components for efficient water management.
• Nature-Based Solutions (NBS): The SWGs integrate Nature-Based Solutions (like restoring floodplains, managed aquifer recharge, etc.) to slow, store, and manage water in a sustainable and climate-resilient way at a catchment scale.
• Focus on Drought Resilience: The project particularly targets making water management more resilient to extreme droughts, a growing issue due to climate change.
• Demonstration Sites: It involves implementing SWGs at demonstration sites across diverse European regions to showcase their effectiveness.
• Digital Tools: It aims to produce digital tools, protocols, and an open-access evidence base to support the design, operation, and maintenance of SWGs.

The project builds on the work of the Water Net Gain project where the Trust is working with South West Water and other UK water companies to embed the concept of pond creation into future business plans.

Westcountry Rivers Trust is working with partners across Europe, showcasing the approach in five demonstration sites and three validation sites – see below.

WaterGrid Launch

The Trust is pleased have launched the WaterGrid project in Plymouth last week. The partnership brings 22 partners together from across 13 countries to lead the way in creating a Smart Water Grid. This approach is where landowners are incentivised to hold more water in the landscape, especially excess flows such as storm water, in order to combat droughts.

This could be through wetlands and healthy soils that contribute to river base flows or water stored in private ponds that can replace mains water during peak drought.