OPERANDUM
Innovative Nature-Based solutions for the mitigation of the impact of extreme events
| Business | Period | Project Coordinator | Funding Scheme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transport & Infrastructure | July 2018 -December 2022 | ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA | H2020 |
Challenge
Nowadays the massive deforestation, overbuilding of rural and coastal areas, modification of natural watersheds have made territories more prone to hazards.
The employment of nature-based solutions (NBS) can mitigate the impact of hydro-meteorological phenomena such as flooding, landslides, coastal erosion, droughts and salt intrusion on extra-urban territories.
RINA is investing great efforts in the innovation of infrastructures, especially considering Nautre-based solutions, which can effectively mitigate natural and climatic hazards, especially in context where the adoption of "grey" solutions is not envision able, such as coasts, rural heritage spaces etc.
OPERANDUM has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 776848 to develop a set of co-designed, co-developed, deployed and tested innovative green and blue/grey/hybrid NBS for the mitigation of the impact of extreme events, promoting their acceptance and facilitating the adoption of new policies for the reduction of hydro meteorological risks in European rural and natural territories. It will improve disaster risk management, due to enhanced capacity for providing quantitative assessments of Nature-based solutions for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
The NBS will be tested and demonstrated in ten living labs called Open Air Labs (OALs), located both in European and extra European countries (i.e. China and Australia). The OALs are aimed to promote innovation and research development and to foster the development of new services/systems/products and business opportunities, relying on the residents participation in conceptualizing and testing.
Moreover, in the framework of this new project, a multi-dimensional platform for data storage, multiple web services, case demonstration and further exploitation including links with existing platforms will be developed (named GeoIKP).
Finally, many people could benefit from this project, for example, public authorities, for being informed about the effectiveness of these new nature-based solutions, but also several producers of bio-based materials that can be used in the infrastructure sector, as well as contractors and construction companies working on the field, who might collaborate with RINA in delivering a comprehensive service including the whole value chain.
Approach
RINA is in charge of the activities related to the “Co-design and co-development of innovative NBS”, bringing into the project its engineering experience with the aim to integrate the NBS with conventional engineering approaches. Moreover, RINA is deeply involved in the implementation of the Italian Open-air Laboratory, for which we developed the advanced engineering design, as well as experimented a new modular geotextile tube, which reinforces the constructed artificial dune while remarkably reducing the environmental impact.
In particular, RINA is taking care of design (preliminary, detailed and executive), construction, technical supervision and monitoring task related to the artificial dune that has been realized as one of the Open Air Laboratories of the project.
For the reinforcement of the artificial dune we have developed and successfully deployed on site a novel design of geotextile tube with a modular structure, which allow reducing the risk of contamination of the coastal environment with plastic fibres and microplastics as well as minimizing on-site operations compared to monolithic geotextile tubes and grey infrastructure. The artificial dune provides the possibility to mitigate coastal erosion by implementing a low-impact and highly effective solution, coupling technical performance and spatial quality.
Moreover, we are also contributing to the development of the project platform and to the integration of the different GeoIKP components.
Conclusion
In conclusion, OPERANDUM will improve disaster risk management, due to enhanced capacity for providing quantitative assessments of Nature-based solutions for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
Moreover, OPERANDUM will produce evidence of cost reduction associated NBS to combat hydro-meteorological risks while showing reduction of possible human losses due to better and more flexible disaster risk management with NBS.
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