Caring and protecting the life and culture around rivers and streams Erasmus Project

Project Title

Caring and protecting the life and culture around rivers and streams

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Water has always been key for the development of human societies. Water is vital for life, to support human societies and well-being. Most of the oldest and larger cities around the world are settled around a river. Fresh water is vital for human life and has also proved to be crucial for the settlement of most economic activities such as farming, transporting, industries or quarries. Unfortunately these activities are in the basis of two big problems: firstly, the reduction of water flow level promoted by the needs of consumption of a growing population with an important impact on the streams’ life balance, and secondly, the degradation of water’s quality due to human usage. Such decrease in quantity and quality has important impacts in the biodiversity of rivers and streams, their riparian areas and catchments. These impacts have been particularly intense in the 19th century, during the industrial revolution, which waste waters , has been thrown into rivers or the sea. Despite the treatment performed in wasted waters nowadays, the rates of contamination are still much higher than those bared by the rivers ecosystems. Actually, rivers and other waterways are currently among the most degraded ecosystems on the planet, suffering higher biodiversity reduction rates than those occurring in terrestrial ecosystems. As water needs increase, in line with population density pressure and economic development activities, river ecosystems will continue to deteriorate if they are not managed in a sustainable way. This requires not only the involvement of authorities and other public agents, but also the active participation of citizens and all social and economic agents. In response to this, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) has established public participation as a requirement in the process of preparation and implementation of River Basin Management Plans. Raising public awareness and improving knowledge on the impacts of human activities in riparian ecosystems while defining efficient measures to change the course of its degradation is crucial.
This project is developed in close collaboration with different political, social and economic agents who work together in mitigating the negative impact in rivers and contributing to improve life quality in Europe. It involves students from different learning levels (high schools and universities), local populations, authorities, NGOs working in environment and researchers from different subject areas.
The Project follows three fundamental pillars:
• Improving ecoliteracy through research and disseminating knowledge on aquatic ecosystems thus promoting positive and responsible habits
• Promoting environmental volunteering through responsible research and innovation, engaging students, teachers and staff from higher education institutions
• Fostering citizens engagement in the protection of water ecosystems by promoting awareness and knowledge.
The LIVINGRIVER project aims at raising awareness, improving skills and competences and fostering initiatives to achieve more sustainable and healthy rivers by developing and disseminating resources and tools which resort on scientific research towards a well informed and consequent global action.
The project will be structured around two main Outputs:
O1 – E-book: Life in streams and their riparia
The e-book will resort on visual graphic and multimedia materials: 3D and 2D animations, videos, pictures, drawings, etc, in order to better communicate the contents related to biology, ecology, specifically ecosystems and the water cycle and regarding the history of scientific research, river and water usage by men and civilisations, industrial, cultural and economic activities related to the river across time, making its use more attractive and at the same time, raising awareness of the natural beauty and richness of the rivers environment.
O2 – Web Platform www.livingriver.eu
The www.livingriver.eu platform will gather information related to the whole of the project, give access to pedagogical and other resources and provide a space for all stakeholders interested in the topic of the project — schools, universities, authorities, NGO’s, professionals and others — to share information, resources and ideas. It will also be the main tool for the project’s dissemination.

Project Website

http://www.livingriver.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 430404,18 Eur

Project Coordinator

Associação Portuguesa de Educação Ambiental & Country: PT

Project Partners

• IES Ribeira do Louro
• Asociacion para a Defensa Ecolóxica de Galiza
• Balıkesir University
• UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRA
• AGENTIA METROPOLITANA PENTRU DEZVOLTARE DURABILA BRASOV ASOCIATIA
• UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA