Call for municipal applications in the ‘Municipal Support Programme’ of LIFE LOGOS 4 WATERS Project
About this good practice
The LIFE LOGOS 4 WATERS project aims to improve climate resilience of local municipalities and mitigate the negative water-balance situation by integrated ecosystem-based water management solutions applied at the catchment level.
The call for applications within the ‘Municipal Support Programme’ invited municipalities to create local, small-scale, innovative natural water retention measures (NWRMs) that contribute to climate adaptation at settlements. The program aimed to call attention to the advantages of these measures.
Applicants had to submit online a detailed application form, the professional description of the concept they aimed to implement, as well as a detailed budget plan. Wide-spread involvement of society and 5% or more self-financing were both assets. Municipalities could apply for a grant between approximately 1800 EUR and 9000 EUR which is non-refundable.
The applications were the own ideas of the municipalities and mainly concerned the following topics or a combination of them: procurement and utilization of rainwater storage containers (used by population, educational institutions); afforestation; rain gardens (on private properties, educational institutions, public spaces); raised beds; log dams, flood control in areas affected by flash floods.
All projects place emphasis on public awareness raising and communication with local residents. The applications were evaluated by a panel of experts.
Resources needed
The budget for implementation of the municipal project applications was 100 000 euro that could fund 14 projects. In addition, one application could be funded from the budget of another project partner, and one from external sources.
Overall, 15 applications could be funded from project resources.
Evidence of success
86 applications arrived from all counties of Hungary. The panel of experts found that 50 applications would have been worthy of support as they could have added significant value to the solution of water related, climate-originated problems. Despite the low amount for the implementation, many awareness raising project concepts were submitted. Interest in the call for municipal applications beforehand was significant: 1 online and 2 in-person events were held with more than 150 participants.
Potential for learning or transfer
This good practice can be started anywher, within a framework of a project or a regional policy instrument, even a small budget can create high interest from the side of local municipalities.
The experience of this programme shows that municipalities are interested in this idea, as they started to recognize their own role in fighting climate change and adapting to different circumstances. As they all fight with some kind of problem resulting from climate change, they came up with their own ideas of settlement development in their own territory, focusing on one small aspect.
Even though the scale of these solutions is not extensive, they can incite municipalities for further developments. They can continue with other aspects of their own solution or start a new one, wiser from the lessons learnt in this project. Additionally, neighbouring settlements could also start to create their own solutions based on their example.