REACTION

REACTION focuses on the risks posed by hydroclimatic extremes and compound events, such as heatwaves, floods, droughts, and heavy rainfall, to freshwater ecosystem services in forest landscapes. It aims to provide a portfolio of user-endorsed strategies to mitigate these risks and develop effective management and restoration actions that balance human and environmental water needs. By adopting an interdisciplinary integrated risk framework, REACTION incorporates substantial data harmonization efforts and innovative data-driven modeling techniques. The project leverages existing data resources, co-designs relevant indicators, and builds models to simulate the complex interconnections between statistically rare extreme (or compound) events and freshwater ecosystem functions and services. This approach enables the quantification and mapping of: 1. Hazards: Hydroclimatic threats. 2. Exposure: The susceptibility of freshwater ecosystem services to these hazards. 3. Vulnerability: Factors such as environmental conditions and existing human stressors that affect susceptibility and adaptive capacity. These analyses are conducted through four unique case studies across Europe, showcasing diverse ecological and societal challenges. Using a probabilistic risk model, the project integrates these risk components to provide spatially explicit insights into present-day hydroclimatic risks for freshwater ecosystem services in various European forest landscapes, as well as future risks under a business-as- usual scenario. REACTION also co-develops management and restoration strategies in collaboration with stakeholders, testing their effectiveness in reducing the vulnerability of freshwater ecosystem services and mitigating risks from hydroclimatic extreme events. Key outcomes of the project include: 1. Generating new knowledge about the impacts of statistically rare and increasingly severe hydroclimatic extremes on ecosystem functions and services. 2. Synthesizing complex risk information from multiple sources, including local watershed data, remote sensing, climate models, and hydrological and hydraulic models, to maximize the value of the data. 3. Co-designing tools to share this synthesized knowledge, enhancing stakeholder planning for the risk management of freshwater ecosystem services in European forest landscapes.