The overall aim of the LIFE LOGOS 4 WATERS project is to improve climate adaptation and coordination capacity of local municipalities by mitigating the negative water-balance situation through the demonstration of integrated ecosystem-based water management solutions in Hungary. Within the project, we assess the impacts of project activities both on local economies and ecosystem services in the two concerned water catchments in Hungary. In 2023 we delivered the project baseline socio-economic as well as ecosystem services assessment. In 2025 we will deliver the final assessment to reveal changes induced by the project.
According to the baseline impact assessment, habitats, genetic diversity, biodiversity and ecosystem services are important for the identified stakeholder groups (land users and municipalities), and the project has a beneficial effect on these services. Currently, the overall natural and ecological status of wetlands and non-wetland habitats is not favourable in the two studied water catchments, which underlines the importance of the LIFE LOGOS 4 WATERS and calls for further similar initiatives to improve the ecosystem services and to improve water retention of these sites.
The assessment also revealed that appropriate nature conservation measures and natural solutions play a role in mitigating health related risks. Furthermore, it is necessary to develop and implement policy instruments that also aim to reduce other environmental and social burdens associated with them. In the areas of hilly water catchment that lacks natural water retention solutions, damage caused by each flash floods can pose a 3-5 million HUF financial burden per municipality. Therefore, the mitigation of flash floods’ impacts by natural integrated water management tools proves to be beneficial from a purely economic point of view, which additionally underlines the significance of similar projects and initiatives.