PROMISCES at the Nature-Based Solutions for Water Security and Climate Adaptation conference

The Nature-Based Solutions for Water Security and Climate Adaptation conference held in Belgrade from 3rd to 5th July, 2024, aimed to break with the traditional interventions for the reduction of hydro-meteorological risks, such as grey infrastructures. In this sense, these measures show limitations in their impact. From this scenario, nature-based solutions (NBS) emerge as more resilient and sustainable measures to tackle disaster risk, water security and climate change impacts.

At the conference, the academic community and technicians had the opportunity to exchange information, experiences and research results on a variety of aspects concerning Nature-Based Solutions for Water Security and Climate Adaptation.

Toni Mas i Ponce from our partner Consorci Besòs Tordera was at the conference. He talked about the application of innovative technology based on Electrochemical Advanced Oxidation Process (EAOP) combined with a nature-based post-treatment for water reuse.

In his presentation, he talked about how the climatic variability of the Mediterranean areas has in recent years reduced the circulating flows to being practically 100 percent treated wastewater. This is due to low rainfall. An example for this is the Besòs basin (Barcelona), with an extension of 1,032 km2 and with a total population of approximately 2 million inhabitants.

Toni also presented the PROMISCES project. He told his audience that the project aims to prevent and remove industrial pollutants from the soil-sediment-water system. He also explained that, so far, the project has made progresses in characterizing and monitoring Persistent, Mobile and Toxic (PMt) substances, assessing their fate and transport, and evaluating some innovative solutions for their mitigation and remediation.

Then he presented the PROMISCES Case Study 3. For this case study, the Montornès Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Spain was proposed for the installation of a electrochemical advanced oxidation process (EAOP) based on E-peroxone. This was combined with an experimental laboratory for nature-based solutions, which was set up in 2014 to develop a process for water regeneration and the use of this water for agricultural irrigation.