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Nexus Future

A project that aims to promote the sustainable use of water and soil.

Initiative phase: Closed

Water governance is a particular challenge that is becoming more apparent in more and more regions inside and outside Europe. Systems thinkers regularly point out that we are in a vicious circle of financing infrastructure for water treatment and distribution. This situation goes beyond the extraction and depletion of natural regeneration and retention capacity, reinforcing a greater reliance on energy and capital-intensive approaches to water access, leading to further investment in infrastructure. Nature-based solutions, including community-based governance approaches for natural resource systems, are increasingly seen by experts as more sustainable solutions, but are still far from mainstream.

The NEXUS FUTURES project consists of three research areas that complement each other:

1. participatory system understanding of two river basins.
This part of the project includes interviews, workshops and other participatory approaches in close cooperation with two river partnerships (Obersauer and Syr). The aim is to better understand interrelationships and opportunities for change in the management of water and soil on the ground and to formulate new, concrete sustainability projects.

2. creation of scenarios for dealing with water and soil in Luxembourg
Building on workshops and interviews in 2018 and 2019, a national scenario set for the future management of water and land in Luxembourg will be created.

3. citizen science for sustainable water management
This part of the project offers volunteers the opportunity to actively shape water conservation, environmental monitoring and science. In collaboration, a Citizen Science tool will be developed that will allow volunteers to jointly monitor and document selected aspects of the water-environment-human fabric and contribute to a public database. The use of new opportunities for knowledge generation in a networked knowledge society should be complemented by real-life exchanges and experiences in the environment.

The NEXUS FUTURES project is funded by the Ministère de l'Environnement, du Climat et du Développement Durable (MECDD) and the University of Luxembourg.

Further information can be found on the website.

Name of Organization

Address & geo

  • 6 Rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi
  • Rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi 6
  • 1359 Luxembourg

Contact person

Institution type/carrier

Research facility

Institution-Name

Universität Luxemburg

How is your initiative financed?

The NEXUS FUTURES project is supported by a transdisciplinary governance structure Project funding: The project is funded by the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure and the University of Luxembourg for a period of 5 years. Reference group: The role of the project reference group with 15 participants is to ensure that the project is relevant to practice by co-designing participatory processes and workshops and providing input. Scientific advisory board: The scientific advisory board ensures that the project is integrated into international research with its methods, theories and concepts. It supports the evaluation of the project through quality criteria. The project team: The project team coordinates the cooperation and research with the actors, organises events, designs methods, evaluates results and publishes them.

Are there any additional partners or funders connected to your initiative?

  • Partners: In the NEXUS RIVER AREAS work strand
  • the team works closely with the Syr River Partnership and Gewässervertrag Obersauer and in the NEXUS CITIZEN SCIENCE with University College London (UCL).

Participation opportunities

The project has been completed and the funding has expired. Information about the project can be found on the website.

Objectives

The aim of the project was to promote the sustainable use of water, land and energy with the involvement of the population in Luxembourg.

Challenges in dealing with water, nature and land in their local contexts should be understood and addressed.

Target audience

The project is aimed at all those interested in actively shaping water protection, environmental monitoring and science.

Challenges and learning successes

In the field of Citizen Science, it is always a challenge to encourage interested citizens to participate.

This page was translated automatically with DEEPL.
The initiative information was originally written in German