eLakes

WP5 Upscaling and Transformation 

Main Objectives. 

WP5’s main objective is to enable pan-European upscaling of nature-positive and climate-resilient lake restoration solutions (i.e. informed by the WP4), developing Road Maps for lakes designed to deliver across established policy frameworks. WP5 will embrace the European Mission – Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030 implementation approach to deliver on the two Mission Enablers for lakes: (i) create a Future Lakes Data Portal (eLakes) to accelerate 2025 Development and Piloting Plans, and (ii) improve participatory governance based on public mobilisation, engagement, and finance opportunities (i.e. lessons learned form WP2 and 3) to underpin 2030 + (i.e. and beyond 2023) Upscaling Plans, recognising the need for long-term adaptive management for lakes. We will adopt the ‘Mission Lighthouse’ approach for ‘development and piloting’, synthesising experiences gained across the FutureLakes Innovation (WP1) and Demonstration (WP4) Cases. We will raise capacity in the application of the eLakes system across the FutureLakes Demonstration Cases and Associated Region community to develop a series of basin to pan-European 2025 Development and Piloting and 2030 + Upscaling plans to be used as exemplars for others. The results of these assessments and the resulting plans will be used to create a Lake Restoration Road Map for Europe to deliver on key EU policy and regulatory initiatives and identifying synergies with other ongoing initiatives.     

WP5 will address the following sub-objectives, which also form the Task structure: 

O5.1. Address existing data and knowledge gaps through the production of the Future Lakes Data Portal (eLakes) and raise awareness on its utility and capacity on its use.  

O5.2. Co-develop with key stakeholders a Mission Lakes Planning Framework (Mission Lakes Framework) and Monitoring and Assessment Approach (MAA) to underpin development of 2025-Piloting and 2030+Upscaling Plans. 

O5.3. Apply the Mission Planning and Assessment Framework for Lakes to produce a series of coordinated 2025 Piloting and 2030+Upscaling plans, working with FutureLake Demonstration Cases and three Associated Regions. 

O5.4. Through the production of a European Mission Upscaling Roadmap for Lake Restoration, demonstrate potential synergies across the established policy framework 

 

Task 5.1. Future Lakes Data Portal (Lead: UKCEH, AU) 

Address existing data and knowledge gaps through the Future Lakes Data Portal (eLakes). Harness existing data services to produce new data products and demonstrate their utility in enabling better understanding, monitoring and forecasting of natural lake status and restoration needs and potential to inform coordinated basin to pan-European benefits assessments. The data products produced will allow interrogation at European scale to identify best candidate sites for Deployment & Upscaling Planning.  

• Map restoration need for European lakes that do not meet the legally binding EU nature targets according to the Birds and Habitats Directives and the Water Framework Directive applying pan-European data products (e.g. WISE portal).  

• Map present day pressures (e.g. water level regulation, water extraction, agriculture, soil pollution, aquaculture and navigation, main source of pollution, barriers to connectivity, pressures on biodiversity, including invasive alien species) and include forecasts for climate change stress (e.g. warming and precipitation forecasts).  

• Map degraded ecosystems to identify where ecosystem services will be significantly enhanced through implementation of suites of restoration measures in line with EU required action programmes (e.g. Biodiversity Strategy and Paris Agreement) and assess potential for measures to deliver across other relevant objectives (e.g. Net Zero) and obligations (e.g. Nitrates Directive). 

• Data and knowledge sharing will be supported through the production of pressure and status maps allowing interrogation of restoration scenarios through selection of measures identified in WP1 and demonstrated in WP4. 

• Publish the eLakes data system on an appropriate platform.  

 

Task 5.2. Mission Lakes Planning Framework (Mission Lakes Framework) and Monitoring and Assessment Approach (MAA) (Lead NIVA, IRIDRA) 

Co-develop with key stakeholders a Mission Lakes Planning Framework (Mission Lakes Framework) and Monitoring and Assessment Approach (MAA) to underpin development of 2025-Piloting and 2030+Upscaling Plans. Develop an adaptive management approach to drive effective decision-making on up-scaling management for the benefit of both natural areas and society. This approach will ensure that issues, conflicts of interest, objectives, and synergies related to practical implementation and policy frameworks are clearly identified at basin to national and pan-European scales. 

• The Mission Lakes Planning Framework will be produced setting out a coordinated and systematic process of adaptive management including baseline screening of current restoration needs (e.g. integrated assessment of pressures and ecological status), potential solutions (i.e. assessment of impact of measures and innovations WP1), potential benefits (i.e. indicators of benefits from WP4), feasibility of replicating innovative solutions, and prioritisation of placement of innovations based on estimates of multiple benefit classes. An upscaling prioritisation process will be developed to increase TRL of NbSs delivering protection and restoring of freshwaters, their catchments and downstream ecosystems; reducing pollution to land, water, and the atmosphere, and improving circularity in the blue-economy of lakes. 

• The Mission Lakes Framework will highlight the key steps in an effective Adaptive Management process, including problem formulation and objective/target setting, analyses of alternative decision and actions, predicting the impacts of action scenarios, systematic review and revision, handling uncertainties and risks, inclusive governance, roles and responsibilities in decision making, implementation and assessment. 

• A core area of the MAA will be resilience to climate change and in identifying innovations that build resilience.        

• The Framework will be operationalised into the MAA combining knowledge on innovations (i.e. WP1 &2) and experiences in implementing restoration initiatives (i.e. WP4). The expertise, data, and evidence offered through the Demonstration Cases community will be utilised to develop Operationalisation Exemplars through which to showcase the application of the MAA.   

• The MAA will harness the power of the eLakes Systsem to produce statistics and maps from basin to pan-European scales. Data products will be produced and made available through the eLakes Portal to enhance consistency in the application of the MAA including on assessment of integrated pressures (e.g. nutrient pollution, flow regulation, climate change, plastics) and benefits (e.g. biodiversity enhancement, flood risk control, opportunities for renewable energy generation, nutrient recovery, biodiversity enhancement, greenhouse gas emission reduction) and social drivers (e.g. fuel poverty, job creation or eco-tourism income generation) in line with local to national policies. 

• Replicability and placement will be quantified by assessing connectedness of end-user communities (e.g. urban centres) to intended placement of innovations.  

 

Task 5.3. Coordinated Application of the Mission Lakes Monitoring and Assessment Approach. (Lead IRIDRA, NIVA) 

Task 5.3 will apply the MAA for Lakes to produce a series of coordinated 2025 Piloting and 2030+Upscaling plans, working with FutureLake Demonstration ‘Lighthouse’ Cases and three Associated Regions. A key focus will be on the transfer of knowledge from Demonstration Cases to build capacity in preparing 2025-Piloting and 2023+Upscailng plans across associated regions.  

• Create an Upscaling Community of Practice through active dialogue and cooperation between relevant stakeholders, citizens, managers and researchers, including representatives from the FutureLakes Innovation and Demonstration Cases and our Associated Regions. Demonstration Cases will be identified as ‘Lighthouses’ through which upscaling of specific innovations can be showcased.  

• Host workshops and produce capacity development material (e.g. webinars, explainer docs, MOOC) to raise awareness on the Mission Lakes Framework and MAA across Demonstration Cases and Associated Regions. Make outputs from these exchanges and capacity development material openly available through the eLakes Portal for awareness raising and dissemination activities in WP6.   

• Work directly with Demonstration Cases (WP4) and Associated Regions to apply the MAA to develop draft 2025 Pilot and 2023+Upscaling Plans learning from the outputs of the optimisation SWAT analyses of existing plans, produced in WP4.   

• WP5 will work with three Associated Regions to co-develop Road Maps (i.e. combining 2025-Pilot and 2030-Upscaling plans) for Lake Restoration. These Road Maps will identify synergies to enhance the implementation of EU instruments and policies that concern freshwater ecosystems (e.g. European Green Deal, WFD, Biodiversity Strategy, EU Zero Pollution Action Plan etc). A focus of this activity will be on capacity development within relevant bodies to enable them to conduct long-term adaptive optimisation of restoration planning and policy scenarios. This capacity development need and readiness to engage with FutureLakes form part of the Associate Region Selection Criteria. Selection will be coordinated by NIVA in WP7. 

 

Task 5.4. European Mission Upscaling Roadmap for Lake Restoration. (Lead AU, ALL) 

Through the production of a European Mission Upscaling Roadmap for Lake Restoration, demonstrate potential synergies across the established policy framework (e.g. European Green Deal x WFD x Biodiversity Strategy x EU Zero Pollution Action Plan) that can be achieved through the delivery of sustainable lake management and embed this knowledge within the FutureLakes Blue-Print to be delivered by WP6.  

• Exemplar pan-European upscaling assessments will be guided through consultation with a stakeholder network to prioritise policy specific scoping, for example, developing guidance on embedding ‘nature positive’ lake restoration into National Climate Change Adaptation Plans and Net Zero Carbon Targets. It is envisaged, for example, that assessments will be made on the scale of nutrient pollution reduction in lakes required to (i) reduce downstream nutrient transport and coastal eutrophication pressures and (ii) reduce greenhouse gas emissions from standing waters to the atmosphere and the global societal costs.  

• A synthesis analysis of 2025-Pilot and 2030+Upscaling plans will be conducted and used to demonstrate the process of developing and optimising lake restoration plans and scaling the underlying assessments through the coordinated application of the MAA to set basin to pan-European restoration ambitions in line with the Mission Statement.    

• Pan-European upscaling assessments will be conducted to produce high level statistics on restoration potential of combinations of innovations and to identify synergies from restoration programmes targeting the protection and restoration of freshwaters, their catchments and downstream ecosystems; reducing pollution to land, water, and the atmosphere, and improving circularity in the blue-economy of lakes.  

• The Planning synthesis and pan-European assessments will be presented in the context of existing and emerging European policies and instruments to create future restoration scenarios. Recommendation will be developed on embedding these scenarios into the existing and emerging policy framework, and published as the European Mission Lakes Roadmap.   

• Uptake and awareness raising of the European Mission Lakes Roadmap will be supported through the publication of data products and guidance on their application to be coordinated by WP6 and made available through the FutureLakes Digital Innovation Hub (WP6). Context beyond the demonstration sites and Associated Regions will be provided for specific cases of policy relevance (e.g. the European and IPCC context of Net Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions from standing waters).