Climate change, human use and change of landscapes increases the pressure on our groundwater and soil resources in the North Sea Region. The internal and external factors controlling groundwater and soil are connected in a complex way and may have amplifying negative repercussions.

Blue Transition, which is an Interreg North Sea Region project, targets a systemic change, a “Blue Transition”, by an integrated water and soil management in times of climate change. Blue Transition balances often-disconnected activities in urban, agricultural, or natural areas, considers a transition in land-use and fosters political structures and governance. Thus, the Blue Transition project accounts for the complex and crosscutting relationships between climate adaptation and water management.

Pilot areas
The project has 16 pilots in Denmark, The Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, France and Germany. The Danish pilots are:

Endelave:
Future scarcity of fresh and clean groundwater on the island of Endelave.

Meadow Aastrup Kaer:
Multifunctional land use and carbon sinks in peat soils.

Aabenraa city and town of Bylderup-Bov:
Climate-hydrological models for flood and contamination protection in Aabenraa city and town of Bylderup-Bov.

Consortium
The Blue Transition consortium has been set up with selected 24 partners from six countries to cover the necessary variety and similarities which allow to develop compressive strategies and policy recommendations both at local and at pilot level. This large consortium links science, government, industry, stakeholders, and society to fosters implementation, to upscale measures by transnational discussion, and includes innovative dissemination and capacity building.

Blue Transition is an EU cooperation supported by the Interreg North Sea Region program in line with priority 3 of the program: ‘A climate resilient North Sea Region’.