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Restoring a river’s course for climate adaptation

Restoring the Vendié River’s natural bends and floodplain to recharge groundwater, reduce drought and flooding, filter pollution and rebuild wetland biodiversity.

  • +1.4 degrees celsius

    warming since 1950

  • Rainfall

    declining since 1950

  • 2024–2027

    Implementation timeline

Replicability

Scaling up river restoration across Europe 

The Vendié model is highly transferable. Its modular structure, tested stakeholder governance model and use of satellite monitoring help reduce both cost and complexity, making replication across other river systems straightforward.

Best suited for

The model is best suited for regions with channelised rivers, intensive agricultural activity, declining groundwater levels and high exposure to droughts or flash floods, particularly in temperate and Mediterranean climate zones across Europe. 

Stakeholders' role

The model relies on a clearly defined set of stakeholders, including public authorities, watershed management bodies, universities, remote sensing providers and farming stakeholders, all of whom can be mapped to equivalent institutions in other European river basins.

Built-in scalable tools

The model incorporates monitoring systems that identify which interventions are the most effective and transferable, while satellite-based tools support mapping, replication and scaling up across larger geographical areas. 

Funding pathways

The model can be supported through a combination of funding sources, including local authorities, regional water agencies and relevant European Union funding programmes.