Waters of LIFE - Opportunity Mapping for Nature Based Solutions

Tender description

The Waters of LIFE is a European Union funded LIFE Integrated Project which aims to help reverse the decline of Ireland’s most pristine rivers. The project aims to develop, test and validate effective catchment management measures to reverse this declining trend. The Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) is the lead authority for the project and there are a number of project partners. Hydromorphology has been identified as the top significant pressure acting on high status objective water bodies. As a result, an important element of the project will be identifying and addressing hydromorphological issues and pressures impacting on water bodies within the 5 project demonstration catchments. One aspect of this will be investigating the potential for using nature- based solutions (NbS) to mitigate impacts on rivers in these areas. Nature-based Solutions for Integrated Catchment Management (NbS-ICM) measures are NbS which are specific to the aim of catchment management. NbS-ICM measures make best use of the natural catchment characteristics in order to contribute to addressing pressures on hydromorphology, which are generally linked with other pressures within the catchment such as agriculture, forestry, peat etc. Through understanding the characteristics of the catchments and the pressures therein, appropriate NbS-ICM measures can be implemented at appropriate locations within the wider catchment. These NbS-ICM measures are natural (nature-based) alterations to the catchment that in turn achieve multiple benefits such as for water quality, habitats and biodiversity, climate change adaptation and flood mitigation. Therefore, the DHLGH is currently seeking the services of a suitable service provider to carry out land potential assessment (opportunity) mapping for the deployment of NbS -ICM in the 5 project demonstration catchments.