SABICAS - Haldenvassdraget

Area characterisation: 

The case study catchment Haldenvassdraget (Halden River) in  South-East Norway is one of two SABICAS case studies (the other is  Gausa in South-Central Norway)

Objective: 

SABICAS (SAfeguard BIodiversity and improve Climate Adaptation in catchment areas under pressure: tools and Solutions) aims to provide tools and knowledge needed to quantify the benefits and co-benefits of nature-based solutions. The goal is to facilitate dialogue and decision making among stakeholders and managers. SABICAS will engage with all key catchment stakeholders through several activities, including workshops and living labs.

Potential impacts/benefits: 

SABICAS will study how small parts of land area can be transformed into NbS without major economic losses. The overall aim is to develop a user-friendly toolbox to optimize the use of NbS at the catchment scale.

SABICAS will contribute:

  • Balancing societal land use needs with the need to protect biodiversity and adapt to climate change
  • Filling key knowledge gaps
  • Propose innovative solutions to implement NbS in Norwegian river management
  • Accelerate multi-functional, multi-beneficial, crosssectoral and interdisciplinary future use of NbS 
  • Improve sustainable use and management of land
NBS benefits 
  • Developing climate change adaptation; improving risk management and resilience
  • Reduce flood risk
  • Reduce run-off
  • Reducing temperature at meso or micro scale
  • Developing climate change mitigation
  • Restoring ecosystems and their functions
  • Increase Biodiversity
  • Increased cultural richness and biodiversity
  • Improve water quality
  • Increase awareness of NBS solution & their effectiveness and co benefits
  • Increase population & infrastructures protected by NBS
  • Increase stakeholder awareness & knowledge about NBS
  • Social learning about location & importance of NBS
Financing: 

SABICAS is funded by The Research Council of Norway (project no. 320176)

NBS classification 
  • Wetlands
  • Riparian zones
  • Floodplains
Contacts: 

Project manager:

Benjamin Kupilas , NIVA

benjamin.kupilas@niva.no

+47 98 22 85 72

Project leader:

Nikolai Friberg, NINA

Nikolai.Friberg@nina.no

+47 98 29 41 41

Further information