DANUBIUS-RI  Motivation and Challenge:

Healthy River-Sea Systems Rivers, estuaries, deltas and coastal seas connect more than three quarters of the Earth’s land surface with the ocean. The natural connection between land and ocean is essential for humankind in providing key ecosystem services including food, water and transport. However, these connections are increasingly impacted by global change, affecting entire River-Sea Systems worldwide. Urgent action is needed to harmonise future human use and the protection of River-Sea Systems to counter the effects of climate change and unsustainable use, such as landscape fragmentation, river regulation and damming, water and sediment abstraction, eutrophication and pollution, the loss of biodiversity and the spread of invasive species. 

DANUBIUS-RI has identified critical challenges and knowledge gaps that must be addressed to ensure the health and sustainability of River-Sea Systems. These challenges include securing adequate water and sediment flows, preserving structural integrity and continuity, supporting natural self-organization processes, and enhancing resilience against extreme events. Adopting a source-to-sea approach, we aim to comprehensively understand the evolution and functioning of these systems. This perspective will focus on key aspects such as the impacts of climate change and extreme events, water and sediment dynamics, hydro morphology, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and services, and the multiple pressures affecting River-Sea Systems, while embracing their inherent complexity.

DANUBIUS-RI will provide science-based solutions to societal risks arising from global and climate change as well as coincident extreme events. Likewise, it will offer a source to sea perspective to resolve the problems of adverse human impacts on water and sediment quality and quantity, hydro morphology, and biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. 

DANUBIUS-RI will be a distributed research infrastructure offering:

• State-of-the-art and fit-for-purpose facilities of river to coastal sea observation systems; 
• Development and implementation of interoperable and harmonised methods, tools and models, to achieve comparability across the freshwater-seawater continua; 
• A data portal to integrate existing data and knowledge across sectors and disciplines, supplemented by new data and syntheses; 
• Smart observation and analytical technologies developed jointly with small and medium-sized enterprises; 
• Test beds for nature-based management and restoration solutions; 
• Education and training programmes for scientists; 
• Engagement with public authorities and policy makers through assessment, evaluation and measures to improve the environmental status of River-Sea Systems; 
• Outreach to, and education for, the interested wider public

DANUBIUS-RI’s Strategic Objectives 

• Advance integrated understanding on the functioning of the River-Sea Systems covering a wide spectrum of climatic, environmental, and societal contexts. This encompasses the interaction of humans and the environment, the drivers of change, the resulting pressures and impacts, and the responses by nature and society.
• Advance transboundary, interdisciplinary and world-leading research on the River Sea continuum. This links field observations (Earth Observation, in-situ measurements) with analysis (laboratory analysis, experiments) and modeling (coupled socio-ecological models, scenario modeling), and ultimately engaging with stakeholders e.g. to support blue growth.
• Deliver the knowledge base and the practical solutions to enable sustainable management of River-Sea Systems, and to reconcile conflicting interests and pressures in a well-informed, adaptive and participatory manner.
• Provide comparable long-term data across sectors and disciplines, and promote knowledge exchange and education.
• Support the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, by contributing to initiatives such as the Global Environment Monitoring System for Freshwater and the United Nations’ Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. 
• Support assessments of European Union’s environmental legislation and provide the scientific evidence base for environmental policymaking at the European level by bridging the current gaps between land, freshwater and marine environmental policies.

DANUBIUS-RI will provide users from science, environmental agencies, river basin and regional seas commissions and business access to a range of River-Sea Systems, facilities, data and expertise, and enable interdisciplinary research, innovation opportunities, knowledge exchange, education and training.