The area of the Eferdinger Becken, Upper Austria, is a small area that lies on the Danube. It has no protection against floods with a 100-year return time: the flood-prone area includes about 154 houses that flood regularly. Due to the importance of the retention space for the discharge and the difficult technical feasibility, passive flood protection was considered as more suitable. Homeowners needed to decide on relocation by the end of 2015. The federal and the regional governments compensate citizens 80% of the value of the house if they agree to move.

The Forested Infiltration Area (FIA) is proving to be an effective tool in Northern Italy helping to address water scarcity challenges and/or to achieve environmental benefits over the long term. FIA is a method to recharge groundwater aquifers by channelling surface waters during times of excess into designated areas that have been planted with various species of trees and/or shrubs.

Isola Vicentina (Italy) signed the EU’s Mayors Adapt initiative (current Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy) in 2014 and since then started the elaboration process of its Municipal Water Management Plan (MWMP) in order to integrate climate change adaptation into its water management policies. For this purpose, Isola Vicentina Mayor engaged the “Planning Climate Change” research group at the IUAV University of Venice and Green-Dev studio, a local consultancy firm.

Normally a shallow river, the White Cart Water was prone to flash flooding. Its water levels can rise by six metres after just 12 hours of rain, which threatened vulnerable Glasgow suburbs downstream. Public awareness of such flooding risks in the 1980s and 1990s, and projections of more intense periods of rainfall made devising a flood prevention scheme a priority for the Glasgow City Council.

Hydropower is an essential part of the energy mix in France, accounting for around 20% of installed capacity. Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events and to accelerate snowmelt, which would result in increased flood risk. Flooding can adversely affect dams causing overtopping, outages, damage to equipment and adverse downstream impacts. It is essential that dam operators take these risks into consideration and implement adaptation measures as needed.

Iceland has 100% renewable electricity and heat system due to its abundant hydro- and geothermal resources. Despite the clear dominance of geothermal resources for house heating, hydropower plays an important role in Iceland’s energy mix, enabling Iceland’s electricity generation to be 100% renewable with 73% coming from hydro; 27% from geothermal and less than 0.01% from wind. The biggest hydroelectric power stations in Iceland are fed by glacial rivers.

The densely populated River Lavant valley region in the eastern part of Carinthia in the southern Austrian Alps is characterised by a low level of precipitation, geological conditions unfavourable to groundwater storage and a limited number of springs that can be used for water supply. In the past decades, annual precipitation amounts have declined significantly, and the region has been affected by water shortages during hot summers several times.

Kristalbad is an area of about 40 hectares located in the east of the Netherlands between the cities of Enschede (160.000 inhabitants) and Hengelo (81.000 inhabitants). This is one of the last remaining green areas between these two cities, playing a role for ecosystem-based adaptation to cope with potential climate change related impacts.

The Vistula River is a 1,046 km long river which springs in southern Poland and ends in the Baltic Sea. The Upper Vistula extends over the three Polish provinces of Małopolskie, Podkarpackie and Swietokrzyskie. The Upper Vistula region covers an area of 43,000 km², including the cities of Krakow, Tarnow, Kielce, Nowy Sacz, Rzeszow, Przemysl and Krosno. The area is also known for its extraordinary natural values. The region is prone to flood risk both in winter and in summer.

The estuary of the Oka River is located within the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve, on the coast of Biscay, Basque Country, north of Spain. It is an area of high ecological value. Its landscape has been transformed over the years by human activities, as it has been inhabited since Prehistoric times. The most important activities affecting the landscape of the estuary have been agriculture, cattle rising and a shipyard. While the first two have practically disappeared, the shipyard activity is still on-going, although with less intensity than in previous decades.