Peter Glanville, Technical Director, and Emily Owen, Principal Hydrologist at SLR Consulting, explore why catchment scale thinking can trickle down for water resilience solutions across the European Union
Across Europe, climate change is increasingly being felt through water, whether through scarcity, flooding or the degradation of biodiversity. The European Commission’s 2024 Water Resilience Strategy is, therefore, a welcome step toward treating freshwater resources not as an isolated issue but as a foundation of resilience across the continent.
To realise this strategy, three areas will be critical: integrated policy, better data management and accessibility, and catchment-scale thinking.
Seeing water through the lens of resilience
Water resilience describes how ecological, social and economic systems can withstand shocks while continuing to meet essential needs. Yet, our freshwater management has often been reactive, ensuring new developments do no harm, rather than proactively building water resilience across a catchment.
The European Union’s (EU) Water Resilience Strategy reframes this by shifting from mitigation to active management, considering how we use water wisely, share it fairly and plan for extremes.
Countries which require irrigation for agriculture, such as New Zealand and parts of the western United States, have long had clear frameworks defining who gets what water and when, particularly for basic needs. Europe is now moving in this direction, recognising that managing scarcity and quality for human consumption, as well as biodiversity, must be coordinated at the catchment scale, based on strong government oversight and public participation.
Favouring nature-based solutions
New approaches to water resilience do not necessarily require a choice between technology and nature; true resilience requires both. An expanding suite of technologies, from water-efficient cooling systems in data centres to the reuse of treated wastewater in industry, can help reduce pressure on freshwater resources.
However, nature-based solutions (NbS) for freshwater deserve greater focus. Defined two decades ago by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), NbS are actions that protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems to address societal challenges such as climate change, disaster risk, food and water security and biodiversity loss.
In practice, this means harnessing natural catchment systems, such as floodplains, wetlands, and riparian buffers, to regulate flows and improve water quality. Blue and green engineering can complement this approach, but it should not replace catchment-scale NbS.
One challenge is that the benefits of NbS can take years or even decades to realise. As a result, they are often overlooked in favour of quicker, ‘engineered’ fixes rather than restoring natural catchment systems to manage runoff and assist in nutrient management, as well as the restoration of biodiversity. They depend on landowners being part of the solution.
Sharing data and accountability
Variable delivery at the catchment scale remains one of the biggest barriers to effective water management. Some EU countries, such as the Netherlands, have robust regulatory frameworks and environmental monitoring, while others often operate more
fragmented systems with multiple agencies being involved in catchments.
Water data often sits in silos between regulators, utilities and local authorities, and not at the catchment level. Initiatives such as Water ForCE, a Copernicus-led roadmap for water, aim to centralise data so that policymakers, businesses, and communities can make decisions based on a shared evidence base. This push for accessible, harmonised water data at the catchment scale is a crucial step toward greater accountability and trust.
Real-time access to such data can help target interventions where they matter most. However, true resilience will depend on collaboration between regulators, private operators, and communities to deliver catchment-scale outcomes.
The EU water resilience strategy rightly recognises that freshwater is not just an environmental concern but a shared societal asset underpinning the entire economy. However, in our work, we often find that industry is eager to act but can be constrained by fragmented governance or unclear responsibilities.
Communicating beyond net zero
Net zero is not synonymous with sustainability. Carbon has dominated the climate agenda for decades, yet water resilience has not received a comparable level of attention. We could achieve net-zero carbon while still depleting or polluting freshwater, our most vital resource. True sustainability and resilience require balancing water, biodiversity, and climate together.
Communication is key. As hydrologists, we often find it frustrating that prioritising water is still treated as news rather than common sense. Governments, regulators, and industry must deliver clearer, more consistent messages: freshwater resilience is not optional; it is the foundation of long-term environmental and economic stability.
A shared future
The EU’s Water Resilience Strategy draws together existing frameworks to create greater collaboration across borders, disciplines, and sectors. Freshwater resilience is not about returning systems to how they were, but about adapting with them for the world to come.
