At the beginning of July, ResiRiver’s Work Package 1 conducted an active work session in Brussels. Their aim was to conclude the trial of a new approach for co-developing our mainstreaming pilots. This method was jointly designed by SYMSAGEL, CPIE, GRAIE, and RWS.
IUCN methodology, difficulties and support
Each project manager presented their pilot to fellow pilot owners and their teams (which included experts such as ecologists, hydrologists, social scientists and NbS researchers). All presentations followed a format that was partly based on the methodology from the IUCN global standard for NbS. Project owners were asked to highlight the most challenging aspects of their work and to explain what was not going well for each criterion, so that the group could offer critical feedback and help in deriving solutions.
For each pilot, this exchange, lasted about 90 minutes and created a strong sense of connection through sharing difficulties. We realised that no project is perfect: an insight that is both humbling and reassuring. Discussions were very constructive and solution-oriented, enabling pilots to progress further in the NbS process within WP1. This is exactly the kind of progress we aim for in an Interreg project!
Establishing timelines
In addition to the peer review session, pilot owners were invited to reflect on their project’s journey within ResiRiver by creating a timeline. This exercise raised a series of questions for each pilot, covering its evolution from the earliest stages to its current status and future direction. Issues and questions covered in this timeline were:
- Before ResiRiver: How did the pilot start? What were the initial objectives? What experience did they have with NbS?
- During ResiRiver: What are the main societal challenges? What do they expect from the ResiRiver collaboration? What was the outcome of their first IUCN evaluation, and what were the weak points? Have they started addressing these weaknesses, and if not, why?
- After ResiRiver: What steps will they take to strengthen the pilot as NbS, based on insights from the peer review discussions? What does mainstreaming NbS mean to them, their project, and their organisation?
Visualizing data
By the end of the timeline workshop, we had created a large, physical fresco, combining information from all the pilots. This content was compiled into an Excel document and is now being turned into a clear, final graphic by CPIE. The work is still in progress, but once it is finished, it will tell the full story of our ResiRiver pilots.
To be continued!