Deda Next to play leading role in the European project ARCADIA

Trento, February 8, 2024 – The EU project ARCADIA (TrAnsformative climate ResilienCe by nAture-baseD solutions in the contInentAl bio-geographical region), which aims to use nature-based solutions (NBSs) to combat the effects of the climate change, has been launched.

This project is part of Horizon Europe, the world's largest transnational research and innovation program promoted by the European Union, and has a total value of over €18.5 million. 

Development of ARCADIA over a period of more than four years (54 months) is to involve 43 partners (private companies, public entities, research institutions and universities) from nine different countries, along with five “model” regions (the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy, the Zagreb and Krapina-Zagorje regions in Croatia, Lower Austria, the Funen region in Denmark and the Skane Region in Sweden), where guidelines and best practices will be implemented starting with the locally existing NBSs — nature-based solutions aimed at fighting climate change and its effects. Then, based on what is actually implemented as a result of these experiments, three fellow regions (Plovdiv in Bulgaria, Centru in Romania and Podravje in Slovenia) will develop their own NBSs. The goal, at the European level, is to speed up NBS adoption through the exchange of knowledge, data and analyses, innovation, training, and networking.

In Emilia-Romagna, the NBSs identified involve managing woodlands and turning them into allies for sustainable development. In this area, ARCADIA aims to implement innovative forest management systems designed to increase the uptake of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, combat hydrogeological instability with a positive impact on the cycle of water — and thus on the ability of the soil to retain it — and improve wood production, thus creating new processing chains in woodland and pasture areas in the Apennines. 

The Regional government is also being assisted by Deda Next, a Dedagroup company committed to accompanying the Public Administration and Public Service agencies in their transformation. Deda Next, will provide services based on its historical experience in managing and analyzing geographical and interoperable data, and will be responsible for implementing a regional data space for monitoring NBSs impacts on local areas and communities. Particular attention will also be paid to the active role played by citizens, policymakers, researchers and other key figures, for whom the company will develop engagement and awareness-raising initiatives to broadly promote innovation.

“Nature-based solutions will enable us to use all nature’s potential to cope with today’s most urgent climate change challenges, such as flooding, global warming and loss of biodiversity. They are key tools for fostering sustainable development. Data is essential to monitoring their impact, identifying their true advantages, and assessing their efficacy. Aggregating, analyzing, and interpreting data can provide a valuable asset not only in supporting public entities in making informed decisions for the benefit of local areas and citizens, but also in ensuring that solutions are scalable and replicable in other contexts. We are truly proud to be participating in this new European project, offering the expertise we have garnered in data interpretation, which confirms how indispensable a data-driven approach is to implement a sustainability strategy that yields concrete benefits,” stated Luigi Zanella, Head of Business Innovation and Development, Deda Next.

The ARCADIA project in Emilia-Romagna is coordinated by Art-ER and includes, in addition to the Regional government and Deda Next, ARPAE (the Regional Agency for Prevention, Environment and Energy of Emilia-Romagna), the Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona, Campigna National Park, the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines National Park, Romagna Acque, the Emilia-Romagna Channel, the Po Basin Authority and Gecosistema. The Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change and the University of Bologna are also involved in the project. 

“The ARCADIA project is ambitious,” stated Prisca Haemers of the EU Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. “The work with the eight initial regions will contribute to the European goal of supporting another 150 regions and communities throughout Europe in the process of adaptation. Our approach involves a regional transformation process that diverges from the traditional methods and instruments. Unlike such traditional approaches, which focus on specific examples of solutions, the transformation process emphasizes the capacity and drivers of change: it looks at the resilience of the environmental system with a focus on regeneration, at the resilience of the social and economic system with a commitment to fairness and justice, and at the resilience of the governance system with a focus on inclusion, negotiation, solidarity and respect for diversity.”

The ARCADIA project is financed as part of the tender: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01 (Research and Innovation actions in support of the implementation of the Adaptation to Climate Change Mission); Topic: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01-06; Type of action: HORIZON-IA, Project ID: 101112737.
Link to Cordis website: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101112737