PHUSICOS is an Innovation Action project funded by the EU Horizon 2020 program. It will demonstrate how nature-based solutions provide robust, sustainable and cost effective measures for reducing the risk of extreme weather events in rural mountain landscapes.

The IIASA PHUSICOS team from the Equity and Justice (EQU) Research Group consisting of JoAnne Bayer and Juliette Martin are leading Work Package 5 which explores policy framework financial instruments to enhance the effectiveness of the design and implementation of Nature Based Solutions (NBS) in the context of Governance Innovation. This includes an analysis of EU policy for enabling Nature Based Solutions as implemented by national, regional and local governments, and also instruments and initiatives on the part of the business community and non-governmental organisations.

Focus

PHUSICOS’s underlying premise is that nature-based solutions are cost-effective and sustainable measures inspired by nature that attenuate, and in some cases prevent, the impacts of natural hazard events and thereby reduce human and financial costs due to better and more flexible disaster risk management. The research project aims to demonstrate the ability of nature-based solutions to increase the ecological, social and economic resilience of local communities at established case study sites with risks associated with different hydro-meteorological hazards (flooding, landslides, erosion and drought).

Consortium of partners

PHUSICOS’s excellence relies on a strong transdisciplinary consortium of partners with wide expertise and long experience from public authorities, research institutes and universities as well as private enterprises. The PHUSICOS expertise covers the fields of natural hazards and disaster risk reduction, climate scenarios modelling, GIS capabilities, geoinformatics and remote sensing, landscape architecture, landscape planning, nature conservation and ecosystem services, economics, governance and knowledge brokering to improve stakeholder involvement.

Partners and collaborating organisations

Funding

The PHUSICOS project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 776681. 

PHUSICOS 3rd Consortium meeting held in Vienna in May 2019. Co-organised by IIASA and the University of Vienna. © IIASA

PHUSICOS 3rd Consortium meeting held in Vienna in May 2019. Co-organised by IIASA and the University of Vienna.

Publications

Mechler, R. , Stevance, A.-S., Deubelli, T. , Scolobig, A., Linnerooth-Bayer, J., Handmer, J., Irshaid, J., McBean, G., Zapata-Marti, R., Gordon, M., Ivanova, M., Srivastava, L., Gomez Echeverri, L., Hochrainer-Stigler, S., Schinko, T. , & Olukoshi, A. (2021). Transformations within reach: Pathways to a sustainable and resilient world - Enhancing Governance for Sustainability. IIASA Report. IIASA-ISC

Mochizuki, J. , Magnuszewski, P., Pajak, M., Krolikowska, K., Jarzabek, L., & Kulakowska, M. (2021). Simulation games as a catalyst for social learning: The case of the water-food-energy nexus game. Global Environmental Change 66 e102204. 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102204.

Martin, J.G.C. , Scolobig, A., Linnerooth-Bayer, J., Liu, W. , & Balsiger, J. (2021). Catalyzing Innovation: Governance Enablers of Nature-Based Solutions. Sustainability 13 (4) e1971. 10.3390/su13041971.

News

Team meeting

04 May 2023

Researchers from Norwegian Geotechnical Institute visit IIASA

Researchers from the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) visited IIASA on 24 April to finalize a five-year collaboration on nature-based solutions for meeting climate and biodiversity targets, and to plan a proposal to continue their collaboration.